Joe Thornton made some history on Thursday night as he became just the 6th player in NHL history to suit up for 1,700 career NHL regular season games.
Jumbo Joe will need to play at least another full season if he plans on passing his former teammate Patrick Marleau for the NHL record, but he’s probably not thinking about that right now with the Panthers sitting near the top of the standings.
It’s been nearly 25 years since Thornton made his NHL debut, which came back on October 8, 1997, and when he hit the ice for the very first time with the Boston Bruins some of his current teammates weren’t even born yet.
Eetu Luostarinen (September 2, 1998) and Olli Juolevi (May 5, 1998) were born during Thornton’s sophomore season, and since Thornton’s time in Boston came to an end during the 2005-06 season we’re guessing they only remember him as a member of the Sharks.
Owen Tippett (February 16, 1999) was born in the middle of Thornton’s third season, and at this point Jumbo Joe already had more than 100 regular season games and 17 playoff games to his name.
Anton Lundell (October 3, 2001) was born at the beginning of the 2001-02 season, while Spencer Knight (April 19, 2001) was born near the end of the regular season. At this point Thornton had turned himself into a point-per-game player and was about to really start taking off.
Lucas Carlsson was born before Thornton made his NHL debut, but he was only three months at the time of Jumbo Joe’s debut, so he’s going to get the special shoutout in this one.
