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Before he decided to leave the San Jose Sharks last week after 15 seasons, Joe Thornton spoke with several friends — both inside and outside of hockey — about what it’s like to leave an organization they had been with for a long time.
One call was to Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana, who spent 13 seasons with the 49ers before requesting a trade to the Kansas City Chiefs in 1993.
“Joe gave me some good advice,” Thornton said on a video call Sunday. “He just talked about leaving San Francisco and going to Kansas City.
“That conversation meant a lot. I had somany people I talked to over the last week. I’m just blessed that I had a chance to talk to some great people. But (Mon
tana’s) one guy that offered me some good advice.”
Thornton ended a 15-year tenure inSan Jose onFriday when he signed a one-year, $700,000 deal to return to his native Ontario and play for theMaple Leafs.
Although he is originally from St. Thomas, which is about a two-hour drive from Toronto and is where his parents still live, the allure of chasing a Stanley Cup with the team he grew up cheering for was too much to pass up.
“Obviously, my parents are right there. So that was part of it. They can be around the grandkids a lot,” Thornton said Sunday from Switzerland, where he is playing for HC Davos until NHL training camps begin. “But really, it’sbecauseof the hockey team. This is a very, very good team and I need to win the Stanley Cup and I think this is a great team that can do that.
“There’s a couple things that helped along the way, but I really, really like this team. I love the organization. So it was a little bit family, but mostly hockey.”
Thornton, 41, was also pursued by the Leafs in the
summer of 2017 when both he and PatrickMarleauwere unrestricted free agents. Marleau signed a three-year contract with Toronto, but Thornton returned to San Jose on a one-year deal. He also signed one-year contracts with the Sharks in 2018 and 2019.
“I gave it a long hard thought, and it just didn’t work out (in 2017),” Thornton said. “And now, I honestly just felt like it was a
great move for the family, we’re over here in Switzerland until the season starts. It’s going to be an easy transition for my kids, for my wife. It just honestly felt like the right time to make the move.”
Thornton is the third longtime Sharks forward to leave San Jose as a free agent in the last four years. Besides Marleau, Joe Pavelski signed with the Dallas Stars last year.
Thornton spokewith both Marleau and Pavelski, along with several other people, aboutmakingthemove from one market and to another. He also regularly spokewith Sharks general manager Doug Wilson, who wanted the future Hockey Hall of Fame centerman to come back to San Jose.
“I had a lot of conversations with a lot of different people,” Thornton said. “I wanted to talk tomore than
a handful of people about making a potential move, I really didn’t know, until the last four or five days, what I was going to do.
“So I talked to quite a few people, listened to their advice. Patty, Pavs and a lot more. But they were really kind and really blunt with how theirmove was, if they moved, the pros and cons and great advice by both of them.”
At the same time, the Leafs’ brass — GM Kyle Dubas and coach Sheldon Keefe— were selling Thornton on the idea of coming to Toronto.
Along with Thornton, the Leafs also signed forward Wayne Simmonds and defensemen T. J. Brodie and Zach Bogosian, who just won the Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“Itwasprobably thehardest hockey decision I’ve ever had tomake,” Thorntonsaid. “But I truly believe Toronto, with the roster they have, with the guys they picked up this offseason, I think this team is ready to win now.
“I’mready towin and I’m just excited to be a Maple Leaf.”
As the 2020 NHL trade deadline approached last February, Thornton was hoping to be dealt to a Stanley Cup contender.
Thornton, who had a full
no movement clause in his contract last season, reportedly had a list of teams he waswilling tobe traded toat the deadline. But a deal to a Stanley Cup contender never materialized, and Thornton played the rest of the regular season with the Sharks before the NHL paused its schedule March 12.
A day after the trade deadline, Thornton voiced his disappointment about not going to a bona fide Cup contender. He said Sunday, though, those events didn’t play a role in his decision to go to Toronto.
“I get over things pretty quick. Just didn’t happen forwhatever reason,” Thornton said. “Me andDoug’s relationship has always been great, always will be great. So (this) really had nothing to do with what happened last year. Just having a chance to go to Toronto play in Toronto, have a chance to win the Stanley Cup in Toronto. It’s special.”
In 1,636 career NHL regular-season games with the Boston Bruins and Sharks, Thornton has 1,509 points, including 1089 assists. He also has 133 points in 179 playoff games, as he helped the Sharks reach the Western Conference finals four times from 2010 to 2019 and the Stanley Cup Final in 2016.