Joe Thornton‘s message was plain and simple on why he signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs, “I want to win a Stanley Cup.” The Sharks and LA Kings were two of the seven teams that failed to qualify for the playoff bubble, and both are in their respective stages of the franchise’s rebuild.
Thornton was the first overall pick in the 1997 NHL Draft by the Boston Bruins. He was traded to the San Jose Sharks in the 2005-2006 season, where he would begin a reign of terror over the LA Kings for the next 15 years.