Over the weekend, veteran Joe Thornton announced his retirement from playing professional hockey at 44 years old. But he did not waste time finding work in the hockey world.
On Wednesday, TSN’s Darren Dreger reported that Thornton will handle management duties and assembly of Canada’s roster for the Spengler Cup. He is joining Calgary Flames assistant general manager Brad Pascall, who will also be apart of the management group.
It was clear that Jumbo Joe was not going to stay out of work for long.
The 2023 tournament will be held later this year from Dec. 26-31 in Davos, Switzerland, where Thorton has already been spending a lot of time throughout his career. His wife Tabea Pfendsack is from Switzerland and the Thornton has travelled there during offseasons and previous NHL lockouts.
Canada has won the Spengler Cup 16 times, including most recently in 2019.
This is a new chapter in Thornton’s life, he who last played for the Florida Panthers in the 2021-22 season, putting up five goals and 10 points in 34 games. What a phenomenal career he had in the NHL, now sitting in seventh place of all time in assists (1,109), and 12th all-time in points (1,539) to go along with his 430 goals in his 1,714 career games split between the Boston Bruins, San Jose Sharks, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Panthers over his 24-year career.
On top of that, Joe won the Hart Trophy, Art Ross Trophy, and named a first-team all-star during the 2005-06 season after recording 29 goals and 125 points in 81 games split between the Bruins and Sharks and was named a second-team all-star twice.
While he is still present in Sharks’ history and their cord books with 251 goals (fourth), 804 assists (first), and 1,055 points (second), in 1,104 games played (third) with the franchise, he gets to add more triumphs as part of Team Canada.
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