Joe Thornton | |||
---|---|---|---|
Thornton warming up in 2016
|
|||
Born |
St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada |
July 2, 1979 ||
Height | 6 ft 4 in (193 cm) | ||
Weight | 230 lb (100 kg; 16 st 6 lb) | ||
Position | Centre/Left Wing | ||
Shoots | Left | ||
NHL team Former teams |
San Jose Sharks Boston Bruins HC Davos |
||
National team | Canada | ||
NHL Draft | 1st overall, 1997 Boston Bruins |
||
Playing career | 1997–present |
Thornton (second from right) celebrates a goal during the 2010 Winter Olympics as his San Jose teammate Patrick Marleau (#11) joins in. |
||
Medal record | ||
---|---|---|
Representing Canada | ||
Men's ice hockey | ||
Winter Olympics | ||
2010 Vancouver | Team | |
World Championships | ||
2005 Austria | ||
Canada Cup / World Cup | ||
2004 Toronto | ||
2016 Toronto | ||
World Junior Championships | ||
1997 Switzerland |
Joseph Eric Thornton (born July 2, 1979) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centreman and an alternate captain for the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected first overall by the Boston Bruins in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft and went on to play seven seasons with the club, three as its captain. During the 2005–06 season, he was traded to the Sharks. Splitting the campaign between the two teams, he received the Art Ross and Hart Memorial Trophies as the league's leading point-scorer and most valuable player, respectively.
Thornton's on-ice vision, strength on the puck, deft passing ability and power forward style of play have led to him becoming one of the league's premier top line centres and more recently a winger. Listed at 6-foot-4 and 222 pounds, he has received the nickname Jumbo Joe.
Thornton grew up playing minor hockey in his hometown of St. Thomas, Ontario, for the St. Thomas Travelers. He played "AA" hockey for the Travelers and in peewee won an Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) championship in 1992–93. His Bantam year was the first for the newly created "AAA" Elgin-Middlesex Chiefs organization, and Thornton joined the "AAA" Elgin-Middlesex Chiefs of the Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario for the 1993–94 season. The creation of this organization led to the St. Thomas Minor Hockey Association to compete at the "A" level. During his bantam year, he appeared in six games for the Junior B St. Thomas Stars of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA), scoring eight points in six games as a 14-year-old. The following season, Thornton joined the Stars full-time and reeled off 104 points over 50 games as a 15-year-old, and was subsequently drafted second overall in the 1995 OHL Draft to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds behind Daniel Tkaczuk, who was selected by the Barrie Colts.