No one saw it coming into camp but just like that, Joe Thornton is starting his Leafs tenure out on the top line with a couple of stars not much older than half his age.
The 41-year-old has been practicing alongside Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews and is starting to feel like his old self! His really, really old self. Jumbo was asked about what it’s been like playing alongside the two youngsters and claims he feels like he’s 25 again. Even though he has a grey birds nest growing from his cheeks!
Yes, that’s a picture of Jumbo from his 20s.
For contest, Jumbo scored 23 goals and 50 assists in just 77 games right before turning 25 so the Leafs should be happy if they could get at least half of that production. The London native potted home seven goals and 24 apples with the Sharks last season and appears to have some has left in the tank. We all saw what Patrick Marleau was able to do on a team with these two… so who says Thornton can’t thrive there too?
Thornton is the oldest Leaf by a good four years (Jason Spezza trails him at 37) but would we really be surprised if he put up good numbers with these two studs? Not really.
(H/T Darren Dreger)
