Could the San Jose Sharks trade Joe Thornton before the trade deadline?

With the San Jose Sharks season still spiraling out of control, is it at all possible that they could trade Joe Thornton to a Stanley Cup contender at the trade deadline?

The San Jose Sharks championship window looks shut, and as the trade deadline starts to inch closer, some tough decisions might need to be made about how to move forward. With minimal assets to sell at the deadline, could one of those decisions be trading long time franchise star Joe Thornton so he can have last chance at a Stanley Cup before his career comes to a close?

Even with lowered expectations going into the season, it has been a brutal season for the Sharks. As of Dec. 30, the Sharks are in second last place in the Western Conference with 37 points, and 28th in the NHL. In the whole month of December, the Sharks have won just two game out of twelve. It doesn’t take much research to find out why. They are 30th in the league in goals against, giving up 137 goals.

According to MoneyPuck, the Sharks have the worst odds in Western Conference to make the playoffs, at a measly 10.9 percent. As of right now, they sit eight points behind the Calgary Flames for the second wild card spot. Not an insurmountable total with more than half the season to go, but they’ll have to pass the other five teams ahead of them in the West. All signs point to them still being well out of the playoff race come the trade deadline.

If the Sharks are out of the playoff race in February they’ll need to consider all of their options, including trading Thornton, because of their lack of draft capital in the stacked 2020 draft. They don’t have their own first round pick this year because of last year’s Erik Karlsson trade, and that pick currently has a 28.8 percent chance of being a top three pick in the draft according to Tankathon.

The Sharks originally acquired Thornton from the Boston Bruins in November 2005, and he has been one of the faces of the franchise ever since. Thornton was later named captain of the Sharks in 2010, before being replaced as captain by Joe Pavelski in 2015. With Thornton on the team, the Sharks have made the playoffs in 13 of 14 seasons, and made the Stanley Cup Finals in 2016. Last season the Sharks made it all the way to the Western Conference Final, before losing to the eventual Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues in six games, in what now looked like their last shot.

Thornton signed a one year contract in September worth $2 million, and has scored just one goal so far this season, but has recorded 14 assists in 40 games. It’s quite obvious that he’s nowhere near what he once was even a few years ago, but he could still be effective in a bottom six role on a playoff team that could use center depth. His playoff performances have always been strong, even last season where he put up 10 points during the Sharks run to the conference final.

The problem for the Sharks at the deadline is that they really don’t have any attractive assets that they would want to sell, or anything that other teams would be willing to take. Karlsson, Brent Burns, Logan Couture, Evander Kane, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, and Martin Jones are all older players that are locked up to big money contracts for several more years. The Sharks would also have no incentive to trade their younger players like Tomas Hertl or Timo Meier. That leaves almost no way to recoup the assets that they’ve lost in the upcoming draft.

Thornton is one of the only assets that the Sharks could fetch at least even a semi respectable return for. He’s obviously not what he once was, but he can still bring playmaking ability and intensity in a bottom-six role, especially for one last ride. Obviously he will not bring back a first or second round pick return, but any kind of picks they can get will help.

One very important note is that Thornton has a full no movement clause in his contract, and it would be entirely up to him to be moved if the Sharks even wanted to trade him at all. He has earned every right to get one last try at the Stanley Cup, but nobody could blame him for wanting to finish his career in San Jose.

So if for some reason both Sharks organization and Thornton agreed to explore a trade, who could the possible suitors be? This is yet another reason to think Thornton isn’t going anywhere. Obviously it would need to be a playoff team with a need for center depth, but only a couple teams barely fit The Arizona Coyotes are at the top of that list, but Thornton isn’t the high end center that they’re looking for, and they lack the cap space. Maybe the Avalanche could take a chance given their cap space, but their center depth appears to be working for them so far. It’s a reach to say that any team would be better with Thornton on it.

Are the Sharks going to move Thornton at the deadline? At the moment it seems very unlikely given the amount of obstacles. Should they at least explore the prospect of it? They should. With no draft capital in the upcoming draft and almost no assets to get a solid return on, getting something for Thornton would be smart from an asset management perspective.

The Sharks gave it their best chance for several years with Thornton, but could just never finish the job. If the opportunity presents itself, they need to start taking steps towards the future. This era of Sharks hockey is over, and a dark period may be ahead.