Boston, say goodbye

Boston bruins captain Joe Thornton has been the centre of rumors stating that he is disgruntled and wants out of Boston. Apparently, those were true. tsn is reporting that IMG Hockey is announcing a contract for (ex ??) Bruin Joe Thornton to play with HC Davos of the Swiss Elite League for the 04-05 season. Boston has now lost Mike Knuble to PHI, Rolston to The Wild, Captain Joe Thornton and it looks like Glen Murray will be spend his year somewhere other than Boston. Are the Boston Bruins next year’s Washington Capitals?

http://tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=90501


30 Responses to Boston, say goodbye

  1. Shevy says:

    Face it, the players dont like the GM, and Mike Sullivan is a horrible coach. Who would honestly sign a contract with a team that cant even put together a starting lineup right now. They WONT be the Caps next year..they’ll be worse

  2. Shevy says:

    Face it, the players dont like the GM, and Mike Sullivan is a horrible coach. Who would honestly sign a contract with a team that cant even put together a starting lineup right now. They WONT be the Caps next year..they’ll be worse

  3. kidhenry1 says:

    You people are so melodramatic. According to the CBC the contract is contingent on a work stoppage in the NHL next season. Do you honestly think that Joe Thorton would sign in Europe when he could be one of the top paid players in the NHL if he was traded and signed a long-term deal?

    I suspect we’ll see plenty of similar contracts in the near future.

  4. LEON says:

    Group II (restricted) – Players, 30 and younger as of June 30, who have been tendered a qualifying offer by their respective clubs and are subject to draft choice compensation and right to match. A qualifying offer is defined as a 10% salary increase for players making below the NHL average salary, or the same salary as the previous season for players making above the NHL average salary. The draft choice compensation depends on the amount of the contract offered from another club.

    How are the Bruins supposed to get draft choice compensation from a Swiss team? This is no different then dogsledding in the offseason. Who do the Bruins got if he get’s hurt (career ending) over there? This is just another tool used by the players to put the squeeze on the ownership…Thornton is a clown and has no commitment to the Bruins.

  5. RangerSteve says:

    According to thefourthperiod.com, Thornton is not disgruntled and has not once said he would like to leave Boston.

    Source: http://www.thefourthperiod.com/bos42.html

    The Bruins team you’ll see in 2004-05, provided there is a season, is well on its way to being vastly different than last year’s edition, reports the Boston Globe.

    Mike Knuble and Sean O’Donnell have already skipped town to sign in Philadelphia and Phoenix, respectively, and the paper claims club’s top right wing — Glen Murray — appears close to signing with a new team, reportedly Detroit.

    But don’t expect captain Joe Thornton to be going anywhere.

    A report in Sunday’s New York Post claimed Thornton, a restricted free agent, wants out of town.

    However, B’s general manager Mike O’Connell spoke to Thornton and his agent, J.P. Barry, yesterday and got no indication that Thornton is disgruntled.

    The GM had lunch with Thornton in June in Toronto prior to the NHL Awards and met with Barry at the NHL draft, saying all seemed well. He contacted both regarding the story in the Post and came away believing there is no discord.

    “I read the article [yesterday] morning,” O’Connell told the Globe. “Someone told me about it. I called Larry [Brooks] and I told him, `I don’t know where you got this,’ and he said he got it from very reliable sources. But I spoke with Joe in Toronto at the awards dinner. Never did he mention anything to that effect to me. I met with his agent at the NHL draft and never was it brought up that he wanted to be traded. It’s all news to me.”

    O’Connell said that didn’t change in the conversations he had with Thornton and Barry yesterday.

    “I didn’t get anything from them that I didn’t get earlier,” he said.

    The Post story said Thornton, who was playing with a rib injury in the playoffs against the Montreal Canadiens, was unhappy that management didn’t support him more and that the team was losing its key free agents.

    According to the Globe, the loss of Knuble and possibly Murray means Thornton will be getting new linemates.

    “I tried to sign Knuble,” said O’Connell. “Murray was looking for $30 million for five years. That’s too high for us.”

  6. angryjew says:

    joe thornton did sign with hc davos of the swiss elite but the contract only is in affect if there is no nhl season. if there is he will be playing in the nhl and not the swiss elete league. he is just making sure he will have somewhere to play if the is no season.

  7. nocuphere says:

    Well said.

  8. NYRules says:

    or if he does not agree on a contract with an NHL team

  9. Flyers_01 says:

    I’ll believe it when Thornton says it. I don’t trust O’Connell. Look at LaCroix did in Colorado after saying that every Coach’s job was safe.

  10. NYR-Rangers says:

    is thornton playin in the swiss thingy only if there is a lockout??? or is he playin there even if there is a season?

  11. RangerSteve says:

    you’ll trust Larry Brooks before you trust anyone else? 🙂

  12. cgolding says:

    how did this get posted… a LOT of players will go play in europe if there is a stoppage… the last time there was one Roenick played in Germany I believe, and Amonte was in northern Italy some place…

    this has ZERO bearing on him playing in Boston if and when there is NHL play again.

  13. Sabres1 says:

    We talk so much about teams who spend too much but here’s a team that refuses to spend a few bucks to get better. Eventually, even in a great hockey town like Boston, players get tired of losing and leave… you don’t have to spend like the wings and rangers to win, but it doesn’t hurt to spend a little bit more.

  14. mysterio says:

    My best friend’s sister’s cousin knows this guy who knows a guy who know’s a friend of Thornton’s cousin and he said that Thornton just wants to check out some huge, delicious, Swiss knockers.

  15. cgolding says:

    my imagination paints a pretty picture of swiss women.

  16. StuWild says:

    Are the Boston Bruins going to have a team next season if there is a season? Maybe it will be the Providence Bruins who fill in just like Wilkes Barre Scranton did for the Penguins last year.

  17. habs_punk says:

    i dont know, i think this kinda makes all those leafs fans look funny for saying that joe 100% definately wants out of boston, and that TO is where he was gonna end up

  18. habs_punk says:

    looks like montreal might have to beat up on somebody else in next years playoffs 🙁

  19. habs_punk says:

    speaking of those injuries, did anyone else notice that after the leafs were beaten, the score had sundin’s injury on it’s ticker? how pitiful is that? countless players were playing through injury during those playoffs, and thornton’s and sundin’s were the one’s brought to forefront, lol, there’s always gotta be some excuse eh. you want a story? koivu had the same injury as thornton PLUS cracked ribs and a bruised lung, while leading the playoffs in scoring.

  20. hockeyhead says:

    i am on vacation so i only read occationally. but all these past posts and comments and rumors….spare me.

    the bruins WILL build around boynton, thornton and sammy. they have freed up money for gonchar and OtHeR free agents because murray and rolly couldn’t get it done.

    they are changing and properly preparing for the new age…like it or not bruins fans. they play hard ball and if there is change in the cba they will be in good shape. joe is not going anywhere. joe razor sammy boynts and gonch….all others can beat it. they will have a team. caps my ass, idiots.

    well, back to slumberland.

  21. hockeyhead says:

    i don’t like this shit anymore than any other bruins fan. i just read that joe told a former teammate he wants out…..like all other stars that have said that and done it…..joe, you are my favorite player, but unlike you (if it is true) i am loyal to my team…so like all the others….see yaa at the beach. f.o.a.d.

  22. Shevy says:

    Their job was safe till Tocchet left. I read a month back that Tocchet disagreed with Granatos way of coaching so he left. And why would you go out and hire a third rate assistant coach when Quenville is there…Granato stepped aside cause he went from retired to coach too fast and knew he could use the experience

  23. EmptyNetter says:

    Like Sinden said when Joe Juneau threatened to play in Switzerland so many years ago, “Hope he knows how to yodel.”

    Hope Joe T does the right thing, but even he isn’t bigger than the team. Have a good vacation, hockeyhead.

  24. gr8haluschak says:

    This comming from a team whose fans were calling for his head after his crappy rookie year, a team who CANNOT KEEP ONE linemate for him, and a team that has shown NO COMMITMENT TO WINNING. I would tell the team to go to hell too if I was him, and asked to be traded somewhere where he would be appreciated – and NO that does not mean Toronto.

  25. DandoEagle says:

    Dude I really think that the Leafs have a good chance at landing this guy.

    I mean all they have to give up is Coliacovo (as the Bruins are running with a delapitated defence) or Kaberle and Antropov..maybe toss in a first rounder (as the leafs throw these away like used magazines) they may just land him.

    Remember that former Art Ross winner went to Washington in exchange for Kris Beech and two other players who aren’t even in the AHL now dudes.

    GO SENS GO AND I LOVE THAT EDDIE BELFOUR!

  26. LEON says:

    Don’t pile Bruins fans and other hockey fans all together…in fact I don’t even think it was Bruins fans that were calling for his head “as a rookie”…I think he has won the Bruins fans over since then..besides we had Sammy as a measuring stick from the same draft and made Joe look bad. In fact, I think most were backing him up and saying how courageous it was to keep going under his condition this year and it was everyone else saying he was a fraud…so get your FACTS straight before making such a biased statement, based on Bruins fans opinions when he was a rookie…that’s just stupid. Also…do you even know anything about the Bruins…they commited, Thornton had Murray and Knuble as linemates…I hardly think he was left to carry the team on his back and the Bruins spent money on the most sought after D-man sergie Gonchar and got Nylander to boot…where have you been? While all the greedy players scramble and use every chinsey manouver they can to squeeze money out of ownship with an impending lockout on the horizon, the Bruins are standing firm. No one know’s what any of these guys are really worth, until after things get settled, but they’re signing them anyway? How can any team commit to anyone right now. But, the players are using this as an opportunity to get whatever they can…while they can. Thornton was gonna miss out cause the B’s were not budging…and why should they? These players have been making too much money for do far too little, leading great lives and having this sport as a way to be something because we, the fans, watch it and it’s gone on…for far too long. If you don’t think the Bruins tried to win last year and made a commitment by signing the best free agents availiable then you don’t even know what your talking about? The Bruins still lost…but everyone still says they’re just cheap…was Minnesota cheap or Anaheim, when they made it far with heart and a winning spirit. You can spend all the money you want and it will look like an act of commitment, but it doesn’t mean your going to win…give your head a shake man.

  27. gr8haluschak says:

    Oh ok there, go try to unwrite history some more,

    FACT – Those fans turned on him during that rookie year, you cannot deny that, it doesn’t matter what they did after he PROVED why he was chosen that high and hell if I was him I would have told the fans who booed him to stick it.

    FACT – Lets see his 2 key line mates over the years Guerin – GONE, Murray – LIKELY GONE, Knuble – GONE, see a trend here no matter how you whine about it that is not a commitment.

    You say that they went after the most sough after D man, too bad that this d man was a whopping minus 20 when you went out and got him, oh yeah that is supose to help the team right. The only reason you git him was the fact that your tight wad owner realized that he would only have to pay partial salary for him playing in the most important time of year. Shut up about them going out and signing the best free agents possible because if Ted Danato is your proof then your team is in REAL big problems. To answer your question about the Ducks and Wild yes they are cheap, except they are not as bad as the Bruins.

  28. Gretz99NYR says:

    TSN has confirmed that The NYR have repudedly intercepted a trade between the bruins and flyers for thorton and roenick- and have landed both players. According to GM glen sather, the undisputed king of the rink, the bruins and flyers were buffaloed into picking up two cardboard posters of the players in a mail incident arranged by the sweetness himself, leaving the angered teams no choice but to pay the salaries of the players by law and recieve no compensation, save whatever they could get the cardbaord cutouts to do. Clark has said (quote) Slats has pulled a rabbit out of his hat this time and we are at his mercy. maybe we can reinforce the paper guy, cause he is lifesize, and strap him to the net, ’cause esch is the entire reason we didnt win the cup and we r remorseful to still have the bum.

    Both real players will suit for the blue this year and recieve thiere pay from thiere old clubs.

    In other news, C Eric lindros was reported to have stumbled naked into a bar in saskatuwan, while apparently suffering from multiple bee stings and diaper rash. Authorities arrived and took him home, only to have him been rumoredly spanked. he then returned to the sheriffs office and under further questioning, blurted. O, take me to N Y. I miss my other daddy. waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

  29. Gretz99NYR says:

    so far out dude. they can toss in aki bergs sweat sock to sweeten the deal. HAHA. Antropov is such a sugar-daddy he can go anywhere and be the life of the party and a great infuence on all the boston babies.The 1st rounder is so origianal dudes. way groovey.

  30. Bruinman says:

    like the Tampa bay lightning??? hahahahaha

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