Steve Dryden's story from Vol. 50, Issue 39 of The Hockey News on July 1, 1997 focuses on Joe Thornton, who had just been selected first overall by the Boston Bruins in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft.
Steve Dryden's story from Vol. 50, Issue 39 of The Hockey News on July 1, 1997 focuses on Joe Thornton, who had just been selected first overall by the Boston Bruins in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft.
PITTSBURGH-If s a “cinch” Joe Thornton will play in the NHL next season.
The Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds’ center was the only player who received a perfect 10 for “potential” among players eligible for the 1997 NHL entry draft.
Potential is defined as the likelihood of a player earning a place in the NHL and the Boston Bruins’ first overall pick was accorded “cinch” status in a confidential scouting report provided teams by the Central Scouting Bureau.
“Cinch” means it’s the unanimous opinion of CSB a player will make the NHL and, all things being equal, it will happen next season. Nobody expects differently of Thornton. The last-place Bruins say he will be in their lineup and Thornton wants the same.
“I’ve been waiting for this day all my life,” Thornton said June 21 after being selected first. “I want to play in the NHL (in 1997-98). That’s my first preference.”
He’ll likely be joined by Sergei Samsonov, the Russian left winger chosen eighth overall by Boston from the Detroit Vipers of the International League.
“We expect both of them in the lineup and expect both will be rookie of the year contenders,” said Bruins’ GM Harry Sinden.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, no team has ever kept two 18-year-old draft picks for an entire season and played them full-time.
The scouting report on Thornton is identical to that on Seattle Thunderbirds’ center Patrick Marleau, chosen second by the San Jose Sharks, except in one category. Marleau received a 9 for potential. Their grades, on a scale of 1-10, were: skating, 9; competitiveness, 9, checking, 8; puck skills, 10; physical play, 8, and hockey sense, 10.
Thornton was the choice of all CSB scouts as No. 1 prospect this season.
The CSB analysis confirms what The Hockey News was first to say March 22, 1996: “The latest word among NHL scouts is this: Russian left winger Sergei Samsonov is no longer a lock to go first overall in the 1997 entry draft. And one of the players most likely to challenge him is Joe Thornton. Another is Patrick Marleau.”
Thornton is the first truly consensus first choice as best prospect since Eric Lindros in 1991 and fits comfortably into a tier of No. 1 choices just below the five most potential-packed picks ever: Gil Perreault (1970), Guy Lafleur (1971). Denis Potvin (1973), Mario Lemieux (1984) and Lindros.
But if Thornton isn’t the most talented first overall pick of all-time, he’s well on his way to being the most co-operative. The gifted playmaker represented his new team with the grace and poise he customarily displays between the boards. Thornton, who turned 18 July 2, was the picture of professionalism in the frantic first hour after his selection and several hours later remained picture perfect in the line of duty.
An NHL official had to retrieve Thornton from his hotel, where the newborn pro was catching up on much-needed rest after a sleepless final night of amateur status. The sleeping giant was awakened. Never a good idea on the ice, but a necessary one off it this day. Thornton, 6-foot-4 and 198 pounds, unfolded his body, wiped the sleep from his eyes and returned to the Civic Arena for a photo with Marleau and the Los Angeles Kings’ Olli Jokinen. picks No. 2 and 3.
No fuss, no muss (or mousse for his trademark curly blond locks). He just did it.
Day 1 in the NHL was an overwhelming success for Thornton, who has drawn comparisons to Jean Beliveau, the Montreal Canadiens’ alltime great captain who combined elegance and ability with occasional snippets of bad attitude to keep opponents from taking advantage of his good nature.
Thornton comes by his-good nature, that is-honestly. (Is there any other way?)
The Thorntons of St. Thomas, Ont., (pop. 32,250), are so salt of the earth Sifto could learn a thing or two from them. They are a close-knit family of five whose primary concern isn’t how many points Joe will eam in the NHL next season, but how he will finish his high school edu cation (through a correspondence course), with whom he will live (a billet family) and whether he’s ready for the next level (they don’t want him disappointed in the unlikely event he needs another season in the Ontario League).
Joe’s emergence as the best young NHL prospect in the world may be the biggest thing in St. Thomas since Jumbo the elephant wandered away from a touring Barnum and Bailey Circus in 1885 and got run over by a train. But he’s not the biggest thing in his family.
Brother Alex, a 25-year-old schoolteacher in Houston, is 6-foot-6 and 210 pounds, while brother John, 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds, is a 21-year-old student at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont. John is the third Thornton to major in geography at WLU, following in the giant footsteps of father Wayne, a football player of some repute as a younger man, and Alex, a three-year forward with the school basketball team.
John calls Joe the “family outcast” because the latter’s majoring in physed (sort of), not geography. It’s expected the family will get over it. although Mary, the boys’ mother, is counting on Joe finishing Grade 13 next year: “He’ll take it,” she says. “You can’t be a drop-out.”
Joe’s career has been a boon for THN. The family has three subscriptions to keep everybody informed of the latest in hockey talk.
“We have a regular family,” Alex says. “Joe just happens to be special.”
Just when did the family know Joe was special?
“When he was bom,” says Mary, an expert on the subject. Joe was a product of persistence. Hers.
“She had to talk me into it,” Wayne says.
“Two years it took me to talk Wayne into another child,” Mary says.
The Brains are grateful.
Thornton’s arrival comes 31 years after Bruins’ legend Bobby Orr changed the NHL landscape and, more appropriately, 18 years after Boston selected Ray Bourque in 1979-the year Joe was born and the draft year often compared to 1997.
Boston’s second first overall pick-Gord Kluzak was the other in 1982—is projected to fit snugly into a pantheon of Bruin greats.
Thornton will wear No. 6 and the unspoken expectation is that number will one day join 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 (Cam Neely’s as yet unretired number) and 9 as single-digit Bruin numbers out of circulation.
Mike Barnett, Thornton’s IMG agent, advised Thornton to wear No. 6 because, in his estimation, it makes big men look bigger. Barnett points to Beliveau’s physical presence during the 1950s and 1960s with No. 4 stitched on his back as evidence.
Thornton accumulated 123 penalty minutes, along with 41 goals and 122 points in 59 games during his sophomore OHL season. (He also played for Canada’s gold medal-winning team at the 1997 World Junior Championship after earning Canadian Hockey League rookie of the year honors in 1995-96.)
When scouts talk about Thornton, the first asset they mention is his vision. He sees the ice at a level far greater than others.
And why shouldn’t he?
“I’m a little bit taller than everybody so I can see over guys,” Thornton says.
It is so much more complicated than that, but it’s the kind of explanation you’d expect from Thornton, whose easy-going nature belies a fierce competitiveness and high efficiency level.
“I take it easy out there and let things come to me,” he says. “I don’t force things.”
In time, he may be an unstoppable force. ■