Thornton Traded: Bruins' "Bledsoe" Is Gone

The Boston Bruins have unloaded the Drew Bledsoe-like albatross they've had hung around their neck the last seven years. The Bruins traded Joe Thornton to the San Jose Sharks for three players early this evening (Wednesday).

Thornton joins Bledsoe and Nomar Garciaparra as long-time overrated, overpaid players who have weighted down their teams while putting up great individual numbers, never leading to championships. If the Boston Red Sox had not won the World Series in 2004, I would have picked someone like Manny Ramirez instead of Nomar, but the facts speak for themselves. Paul Pierce may be the albatross of the Celtics. Time will tell.

The Bruins get Marco Sturm, Wayne Primeau and Brad Stuart in return for Thornton, who in August signed a three-year, $20 million contract. All three now-former Sharks are also former first-round picks. Primeau, 29, was the 17th pick of the 1994 draft by the Buffalo Sabres. This is his ninth season in the NHL. Sturm, 27, was the 26th pick in 1996 by the Sharks. This is his eighth year. Stuart, 26, was the No. 3 overall pick in 1998, also by the Sharks. This is his sixth year in the league.

Thornton, also 26, was the No. 1 pick in the 1997 NHL draft by, of course, the Bruins.

Sturm, a defenseman, has six goals and 10 assists this season, second-highest for the Sharks. He had a career-high 28 goals in the 2002-03 season. Primeau, a center, has five goals and three assists this season. He has 563 career penalty minutes.
Stuart, a left winger, who has two goals and 10 assists, finished second in voting for the Calder Trophy as top rookie following the 1999-00 season, in which he had 10 goals and 26 assists.

Thornton was tied for 11th in the NHL in scoring entering Wednesday's games with nine goals and 24 assists.

Outside of that, I can't really tell you whether this is a fair or an even trade, but I can tell you that it's a good trade. Even if these three guys end up stinking up the Garden, in the long run, it will be worth it. Thornton is a great player. He wasn't a "cancer" like Terrell Owens. But, plain and simple, "he's not the guy."

I've watched Thornton over the years. I remember when the Bruins drafted him, he, like Bledsoe, was going to save the team from the depths of the doldrums and bring home title after title. And, now, after seven years and change (Bledsoe was eight and change -- technically he finished his ninth with the Pats, but you know that story), we have, like Bledsoe, an aging guy who has never lived up to his potential, never brought home a Stanley Cup, never had "that presence."

Of all the times I've watched the Bruins over the last several years, I never had the feeling like I used to with other players, like Terry O'Reilly or Rick Middleton, that when they came out on the ice, you knew something was going to happen, somewhere, someway. Guys who, when they came out on the ice, other players responded. Guys like Tom Brady, like Kevin McHale coming off the bench, like Curt Schilling and David Ortiz and Jason Varitek, like Pedro, like Yaz, like Cam, like Orr, like Russell, like Havlicek, like Bruschi. These are the greats in Boston sports history. They are the greats because they were and are like George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, George Patton. They're leaders. People respond to their mere presence, and then to their actions.

Bledsoe didn't have it. Thornton doesn't have it.

I was fortunate to see Thornton a little more up close a few weeks ago. My brother and I were at the Nov. 10 game .. shellacking .. vs. Ottawa. It was 5-2, remember? Ottawa's Dany Heatley scored 27 seconds into the game and 11 seconds into the 3rd period. There was one thing missing on the ice that night, and it was a leader. No one to rally the troops. No one to fire up anyone else. No one to even give the illusion that he was playing particularly hard himself. He moped around the ice, skated lackluster, hardly checked anyone. He ended up with an assist, and his line was -2. He looked ordinary, and that's giving him some credit. Between shifts, he hardly seemed interested in the action.

Sunday I watched Tom Brady have a horrible game, tie a career worst, and watch his team sink to 6-5. Brady was fired up. Definitely mad at himself. And because of it, he went and played harder. That's what winners do.

If Thornton wants to be that guy, he's going to have to do it in another team's sweater.

Now we can all get ready for WEEI's Dale Arnold lamenting the "loss" of Thornton the way we had to put up with The Boston Globe's Ron Borges incessant whining about the "loss" of Bledsoe until the Patriots won their third Super Bowl. Imagine if San Jose wins a Stanley Cup before Boston? Arnold go like a Chatty Cathy to his grave.