Is Joe Thornton the greatest player never to win a Stanley Cup?

The timing felt random, but the farewell was…fitting. Joe Thornton last played an NHL game on May 5, 2023, logging a forgettable 6:18 of ice time on eight shifts in his Florida Panthers’ series-clinching loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Then, 17 months passed without an official change to his playing status. He practically felt forgotten by the time he released a brief, cheerful retirement video this past Saturday at the age of 44. So Thornton rides off in a manner epitomizing his career in many ways: undeniably excellent but also understated and not often enough acknowledged for how excellent it was.

That’s an ironic description for Thornton’s hockey career tombstone considering the fanfare he carried when he arrived in the NHL as the 1997 Draft’s No. 1 overall pick, billed as a future superstar when the Boston Bruins nabbed him. He infamously struggled in his rookie year but was playing at an elite level by the time he reached his early 20s. Because he shared a prime with superstars such as Peter Forsberg and, later, Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, Thornton was rarely if ever billed as the top player on the planet, with the exception being 2005-06, when he exploded for a league-high 125 points and became the first player to win the Hart Trophy as MVP after being traded mid-season, poached by the San Jose Sharks in one of the most lopsided swaps in hockey history. But if you put the entire body of work together, sheesh, Thornton absolutely stands out as one of the greatest players ever.

– 1,109 assists (seven^th all-time)
– 1,539 points (12^th all-time)
– One of five players ever with multiple 90-assist seasons (Gretzky, Lemieux, Orr, Oates)

The great hockey historian Paul Pidutti sums up Thornton’s brilliance even more succinctly, explaining that, because the early part of his prime came in the Dead Puck era, Thornton played in the third-lowest scoring era of any player with more than 1,300 career points, trailing only Gordie Howe and Jarome Iginla. Adjusted for era, Thornton’s points jump to seventh all-time, and he’s fourth in assists. Whoa.