The Blockbuster Deal is Alive and Well in the New NHL

Thornton, who signed a three-year, $20 million contract in August, had been saddled with much of the blame for Boston's poor start.

"This is a team crying out right now for Thornton, the $6.67 million-a-year captain, to be its emotional, physical, and yes, production leader," wrote Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe recently. "By those standards, what we are seeing here is Thornton Light, a long bottle that looks good, tastes fine, but in the end just doesn't deliver all the goods necessary."

It will be interesting to see where media mavens like Dupont come down on this deal. Dumping the franchise player just 26 games into a mediocre season, without getting a marquee name in return, is not the most reliable way to engineer a turnaround.

The Sharks, an unexpected flop in the Western Conference, have been awash in trade rumors. They give up a good defenseman in Stuart, a 40-odd points-per-year winger in Sturm, and a decent plugger in Primeau. They get a potential scoring champion, a legitimate MVP candidate from 2003 and the best player at last spring's World Hockey Championship.

It seems Bruins general manager Mike O'Connell is the new "Mad Mike" of the NHL. Two or three years from now, he might have another nickname: the dumbest guy in hockey.

Postscript: Among the Boston media, Thornton will be remembered as a nice guy and an immensely skilled, occasionally dominant player. But he never emerged as the Forsberg-like presence the city expected when he was drafted first overall in 1997. At age 26, he's viewed as over-rated and overpaid, unwilling to play physical, unwilling or unable to carry the Bruins on his back.

• "They watched him play. They looked at the books, as well as the decline in the standings, and for the last two weeks O'Connell worked the phones feverishly to get him gone. They felt he wasn't worth the money." Kevin Paul Dupont.
• "This season is still in peril, and this is the most dramatic trade since Espo. But before reflexivly condemning it (check out Canadian sports websites – woo!), people ought to review some game tapes and ask themselves where the ACTION was that was going to lead professional athletes, to inspire them, to make them accountable if they didn’t give every ounce on every shift." Jack Edwards of the New England Sports Network.
• "Maybe he’ll thrive in another city, surrounded with a different cast of players. Maybe he won’t. In eight seasons wearing the spoked 'B,' he never crossed the threshold from being a very good player to being a great one." Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald.
• "I came here to win and we haven't been winning. Whose fault is that? I'm not sure. Obviously, I'm out of here so it must be mine." Joe Thornton, during a media conference call following the deal.