Sun: Leafs interested in Joe Thornton

[CarltonTheBear]

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/06/06/leafs-reportedly-interested-in-joe-thornton

Mike Zeisberger says that the Leafs are among 6 teams to be interested in him. He just signed a 3-year extension to stay in San Jose with a cap hit of $6.75mil. The deal includes a NMC so I'd be pretty surprised to see him waive it as he obviously took a decent sized pay-cut to stay in San Jose.

 

[Bender]

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/06/06/leafs-reportedly-interested-in-joe-thornton

Mike Zeisberger says that the Leafs are among 6 teams to be interested in him. He just signed a 3-year extension to stay in San Jose with a cap hit of $6.75mil. The deal includes a NMC so I'd be pretty surprised to see him waive it as he obviously took a decent sized pay-cut to stay in San Jose.

I really don't want him here...

 

[CarltonTheBear]

I really don't want him here...

I honestly don't understand how any Leafs fan wouldn't want him (well, depending on the price). He's exactly the type of centre this team needs.

 

[Frank E]

I really don't want him here...

I honestly don't understand how any Leafs fan wouldn't want him (well, depending on the price). He's exactly the type of centre this team needs.

Agreed.

 

[BlueWhiteBlood]

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/06/06/leafs-reportedly-interested-in-joe-thornton

Mike Zeisberger says that the Leafs are among 6 teams to be interested in him. He just signed a 3-year extension to stay in San Jose with a cap hit of $6.75mil. The deal includes a NMC so I'd be pretty surprised to see him waive it as he obviously took a decent sized pay-cut to stay in San Jose.

For me it's the price to acquire him, I don't think it will be cheap. I'd wait to see what happens with Statsny first IMO.

 

[AvroArrow]

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/06/06/leafs-reportedly-interested-in-joe-thornton

Mike Zeisberger says that the Leafs are among 6 teams to be interested in him. He just signed a 3-year extension to stay in San Jose with a cap hit of $6.75mil. The deal includes a NMC so I'd be pretty surprised to see him waive it as he obviously took a decent sized pay-cut to stay in San Jose.

For me it's the price to acquire him, I don't think it will be cheap. I'd wait to see what happens with Statsny first IMO.

I'm with BWB.  I'd absolutely want Thornton, but I wouldn't want to pay the price I expect we'd have to.

If it's something akin to Lupul + Bozak + small pick/prospect type deal, then sure.  But if Kadri, Gardiner, or any 1st is involved, no thanks.

 

[bustaheims]

I honestly don't understand how any Leafs fan wouldn't want him (well, depending on the price). He's exactly the type of centre this team needs.

Yeah, though, I'm pretty confident that I won't be happy with what it would take to acquire him.

 

[Frank E]

I honestly don't understand how any Leafs fan wouldn't want him (well, depending on the price). He's exactly the type of centre this team needs.

Yeah, though, I'm pretty confident that I won't be happy with what it would take to acquire him.

Yeah, but, imagine Thornton between JVR and Kessel...come on.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

For me it's the price to acquire him, I don't think it will be cheap. I'd wait to see what happens with Statsny first IMO.

His situation makes it very difficult to really say what the price will be. Thornton likely won't want to be traded out of San Jose, and if he does accept that it's time to move on he'll likely pick a very small number of teams that he'll accept a trade to, which will drop his value. I'm not sure Toronto will be one of those teams, but if they are Nonis and co. have to take a serious look.

So the two keys here are how badly does San Jose want a "culture change" and will Joe actually waive his NMC for the Leafs. If those two things work in our favour I don't think the price will be absurdly high. But it's tough to say.

 

[bustaheims]

Yeah, but, imagine Thornton between JVR and Kessel...come on.

Yeah, but, imagine the rest of the team. Honestly, as much as I'd love for the team to add a legit #1 centre, improving the top line is near the bottom of the list of things that need to be done.

 

[BlueWhiteBlood]

His situation makes it very difficult to really say what the price will be. Thornton likely won't want to be traded out of San Jose, and if he does accept that it's time to move on he'll likely pick a very small number of teams that he'll accept a trade to, which will drop his value. I'm not sure Toronto will be one of those teams, but if they are Nonis and co. have to take a serious look.

So the two keys here are how badly does San Jose want a "culture change" and will Joe actually waive his NMC for the Leafs. If those two things work in our favour I don't think the price will be absurdly high. But it's tough to say.

I'd say that's probably a pretty good synopsis of the situation. Wilson probably wants the change far more than does Thornton and my guess is that he most likely doesn't want to come to the Leafs, maybe I'm wrong, but at his age, he probably doesn't want all that attention.

He would look good on that top line for 3 years though.

 

[Kin]

He would look good on that top line for 3 years though.

I mean...he might. He's going to be 35 before the season starts and while his point totals have remained strong, there are reasons to look at his declining goal totals and seriously wonder how much of an impact player he still is.

 

[L K]

There's also the question of his speed and whether that works well with Kessel and JVR. 

 

[BlueWhiteBlood]

He would look good on that top line for 3 years though.

I mean...he might. He's going to 35 before the season starts and while his point totals have remained strong, there are reasons to look at his declining goal totals and seriously wonder how much of an impact player he still is.

Sure, you could also wonder about how much his line mates help his totals. But was Thornton ever a goal scorer? Wasn't his peak like 20 a season or there about?

I see him much like Sundin, in that he's an opposing big body, hard to contain and Mats played until 38. Either way, he's not my top choice.

 

[BlueWhiteBlood]

There's also the question of his speed and whether that works well with Kessel and JVR. 

I would think that is a better question, than his goal scoring.

 

[Kin]

Sure, you could also wonder about how much his line mates help his totals. But was Thornton ever a goal scorer? Wasn't his peak like 20 a season or there about?

Well, his peak was 37 goals in 72 games but even in his post-lockout career with the Sharks he was still usually a 25-30 goal scorer.

Regardless, that's sort of my point. Something that already wasn't a strength of his game has seen a steep decline in recent years to the point that, in isolation, his numbers aren't really great. He numbers were like Henrik Sedin's or late-period Gretzky at his peak. Now they look like the numbers of someone who's being carried by linemates.

I see him much like Sundin, in that he's an opposing big body, hard to contain and Mats played until 38. Either way, he's not my top choice.

Mats also never saw his goal scoring fall off a cliff.

 

[crazyperfectdevil]

this has shades of owen nolan all over again..no thanks

 

[Frank E]

Sure, you could also wonder about how much his line mates help his totals. But was Thornton ever a goal scorer? Wasn't his peak like 20 a season or there about?

Well, his peak was 37 goals in 72 games but even in his post-lockout career with the Sharks he was still usually a 25-30 goal scorer.

Regardless, that's sort of my point. Something that already wasn't a strength of his game has seen a steep decline in recent years to the point that, in isolation, his numbers aren't really great. He numbers were like Henrik Sedin's or late-period Gretzky at his peak. Now they look like the numbers of someone who's being carried by linemates.

I see him much like Sundin, in that he's an opposing big body, hard to contain and Mats played until 38. Either way, he's not my top choice.

Mats also never saw his goal scoring fall off a cliff.

2nd in the league in assists last year though...he's still one hell of a puck distributor.

Like any deal, it's really all going to depend on the acquisition cost.

 

[BlueWhiteBlood]

Something that already wasn't a strength of his game has seen a steep decline in recent years to the point that, in isolation, his numbers aren't really great. He numbers were like Henrik Sedin's or late-period Gretzky at his peak. Now they look like the numbers of someone who's being carried by linemates.

I like the Henrik Sedin comparable, that is almost perfect.

In the end, I think it would cost too much, for what you're getting back.

 

[bustaheims]

There's also the question of his speed and whether that works well with Kessel and JVR.

There's that, and, really, in terms of production from the top line, the 1st line is really approaching the point of diminishing returns. JvR and Kessel aren't likely to see significant bumps in their totals with Thornton (or Stastny, or whoever) playing between them. So, you really have to take a serious look at how much sending assets to upgrade Bozak could take away from the production or potential upgrades throughout the rest of the lineup. For someone like Thornton, my guess is that you'd find yourself giving up more than you'd gain.