The pros and cons to 'Jumbo Joe' becoming a Florida man
The Panthers are definitely a team on the rise. But can Joe Thornton on a one-year deal be the difference maker they need to have success in the playoffs?
Let’s start with the premise that the odds are against the Florida Panthers winning the Stanley Cup in 2021-22. That’s not a reflection on how good or bad the Panthers are more than it is a dose of reality. It’s just so damn hard to win this thing. Or, to put another way, if someone said right here, right now, that you could choose either the Panthers to win the Cup in 2022 or the field, almost all of you would be inclined to take the field.
So, chances are Joe Thornton will play his 24th NHL season and, when it’s all said and done, still be looking for that elusive Cup ring next spring. But it’s very clear that, as much as Thornton loves playing and will probably continue to do so until all 32 teams in the NHL decline his services, he’s in the championship chasing mode. Sometimes that works out. Often it doesn’t.
“I knew pretty much shortly after the season, I started training right away and I felt good,” Thornton said. “So, yeah, here we go again.”
Here we go again, indeed. When Thornton met virtually with the media after signing, he was talking about how impressive the Panthers are, how good they looked in the playoffs against the Tampa Bay Lightning and how their young core looks to be on the cusp of something special. Ten months ago, he was saying almost all the same things about the Toronto Maple Leafs. And things did not turn out well. Not at all. The Leafs were bounced in the first round of the playoffs once again and from the moment they were eliminated, there wasn’t a single observer who thought Thornton would be a part of the Maple Leafs’ plans moving forward. The vision is still there, as is the ability to protect the puck, but the reality is that it’s very difficult for the 42-year-old Thornton to keep up with NHL players up and down the ice.
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The signing carries no financial risk for the Panthers. At $750,000, the cost and cap hit are minimal. In a best-case scenario, Thornton is a guy who can play up and down the lineup, can give you some power-play minutes and be a steadying force for a group of Panthers players who are still finding their way. If the Panthers extend the contract of captain Aleksander Barkov before the season starts, that will take away a potential distraction. The Panthers are onto something here, nobody is exactly sure what yet, but it does have some intriguing possibilities.
But that doesn’t mean this deal doesn’t have the potential to hamper the Panthers. If it becomes abundantly clear that Thornton can’t compete at the NHL level, do the Panthers defer to the player and keep him in the lineup out of respect for what he has accomplished, but at the expense of another young player who might be able to help them? Does it hamper the development of a guy like Anton Lundell, the 20-year-old the Panthers chose in the first round in 2020 and are hoping will anchor their third line? The other way it can go sideways is if the Panthers players and coaching staff put pressure on themselves to “win one for Joe.” This is a franchise that hasn’t even won a playoff series since 1996, when a 16-year-old Thornton was finishing his rookie season with the Soo Greyhounds and was still a full year away from being drafted. To go from that record of success to winning a Stanley Cup isn’t unprecedented, but it sure skips a lot of steps. Like the Leafs, let’s see them win a playoff series before we start talking about them being a Stanley Cup contender.
If the Panthers do put pressure on themselves to win for ‘Jumbo’, they risk losing sight of the actual goal of winning it for their fans, their city and themselves. Just ask Ray Bourque. When he was dealt to the Colorado Avalanche at the trade deadline in 2000, the pressure to add a Cup to Bourque’s Hall of Fame resume was intense and the Avs crumbled in the playoffs. It wasn’t until the next year that they put it all together and allowed Bourque to exit the NHL as a Stanley Cup champion.
If the Panthers are shaping up to be as good as some people think they’ll be, Thornton will be a supplementary player. The Panthers will not be relying on him to do a lot of heavy lifting. If Thornton centers the fourth line, sees some time on the power play, pads his career totals a little, offers some mentorship and stays out of the way while the Barkovs, Sam Reinharts, Jonathan Huberdeaus and Aaron Ekblads play the difficult minutes, maybe, just maybe, he will get that Stanley Cup he’s chasing.