I had one thought watching Jaromir Jagr, in full uniform, take part in Pittsburgh Penguins’ practice and warm-ups before his jersey retirement game yesterday.
Will Joe Thornton do the same thing, when the San Jose Sharks retire his number next season?
Head coach David Quinn certainly isn’t getting in Jumbo’s way.
“Absolutely,” Quinn smiled, when asked if he would extend Thornton the same courtesy this morning.
“Try to keep him off,” San Jose Sharks color commentator Drew Remenda cracked from the side.
Thornton, 44, just two years removed from his last NHL game, should look like he never left the ice if he chooses to don his No. 19 next season.
The San Jose Sharks have yet to schedule Thornton’s jersey retirement game, but there’s a good bet that the Boston Bruins, who drafted him first-overall in 1997, will be involved somehow.
Thornton skated for the Bruins between 1997 and 2005, before they traded him to Sharks in Nov. 2005. He left San Jose as a free agent in the summer of 2020, finishing his career with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers.
The other Jumbo-sized question: Pens players wore mullet wigs in honor of Jagr, when he joined them in warm-ups before they took on the Los Angeles Kings – how about costume beards for the Sharks next year?
More must-reads: