Thornton revered as ‘larger-than-life character’ during Hall of Fame journey

The 2025 Hockey Hall of Fame induction is Nov. 10. This year’s class includes Jennifer Botterill, Zdeno Chara, Brianna Decker, Duncan Keith, Alexander Mogilny and Joe Thornton in the Players category, and Jack Parker and Daniele Sauvageau in the Builders category. Here, NHL.com staff writer Mike Zeisberger profiles Thornton.

ST. THOMAS, Ontario -- The distance between this southwestern Ontario community and the Hockey Hall of Fame in downtown Toronto is approximately 127 miles.

For Joe Thornton, the pride of St. Thomas, the trip has been a wild and wonderful journey en route to induction in the hallowed Hall, one punctuated by facial hair and fancy passes, countless points and practical jokes, assists and anecdotes, all done with a flair and color that has made him one of the sport’s biggest personalities of today and yesteryear.

The one thing his adventure hasn’t been: boring. Because Joe Thornton is anything but that.

“What he is,” summed up Patrick Marleau, his longtime San Jose Sharks teammate, friend and confidant, “is a larger-than-life character.”

You only need come to St. Thomas to understand how much he comes by that description honestly.

There, perched on a bluff overlooking town, just two miles down the road from his childhood home where his parents still live, is a statue of Jumbo The Elephant, one of the most iconic figures in the history of this community and the inspiration of the nickname “Jumbo” that he still goes by.

On Sept. 18, 1885, Jumbo The Elephant, who was in town on tour with the Barnum & Bailey Circus, was being brought back to his box car when he was unexpectedly struck and killed by a freight train.

P.T. Barnum once estimated that Jumbo was 13 feet tall. Thornton, at 6-foot-4, might only be half that size, but shares the characteristic of also being a “larger-than-life character,” to use Marleau’s exact words.

In 1985, 100 years after Jumbo’s tragic death, the city of St. Thomas authorized the statue in commemoration of Jumbo. Thornton spent part of his childhood in the statue’s shadow. Hence the nickname.

Now, 40 years after the statue was erected, hockey’s Jumbo will get his own lasting memorial, this one in the form of a plaque in the legendary Great Hall of the Hockey Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2025.

And leave it to Thornton to react to the news of his induction in pure raw unfiltered Jumbo style.

His statistics certainly prove him more than worthy of the honor, a 1,714-game regular-season body of work that stretched from 1997-2022 with the Boston Bruins, San Jose Sharks, Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers. In that time, he ranks sixth all-time in games played, 14th in points (1,539) and seventh in assists (1,109). In 2005-06, the season in which he was dealt by Boston to San Jose in one of the sport’s all-time memorable blockbusters, he won the Art Ross Trophy as the League’s leading scorer with 125 points (29 goals, 96 assists) and was also voted the recipient of the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP.

He never did get to win that elusive Stanley Cup he so coveted, reaching the Final in 2016 before losing to the champion Pittsburgh Penguins in six games. He was, however, a member of Canada’s gold medal-winning team at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, a moment he understandably refers to as a highlight of his career.

Through it all, he did it with the panache and flair that was -- and still is -- so uniquely Jumbo.

That certainly was the case on June 24 when Ron Francis, the chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame induction committee, and Lanny McDonald, the outgoing chairman, called him with the news that he’d been voted in.

“Holy (bleep), Ron!” Thornton replied gleefully. “Holy doodle. Holy doodle. Holy doodle, boys. Oh my God. I’m shaking. Thanks, boys. Holy moly. Incredible.”

Safe to say there has never been quite that reaction to an induction call.

Then again, there’s never been a personality quite like Jumbo Joe in the Hall.

* * * *

First off, the trademark beard. His calling card, if you will.

He first introduced it in 2015-16. He’d had one before, sure, but never the type of pelt with the length and density of this dangling salt-and-pepper beauty.

When yours truly asked about it during media day prior to the 2016 Stanley Cup Final, he laughed and said: “The cat loves it. The wife, not so much.”

Judging by the fact he still has it, the guessing is that wife, Tabea, has since warmed up to it.

But the beard, like its owner, has had some adventures of its own.

On Jan. 4, 2018, Nazem Kadri, then with the Toronto Maple Leafs, ripped off a chunk of it during a fight with Thornton. The Maple Leafs forward would later quip: “I thought I was a hockey player, not a barber.”

“That was messy,” then-Sharks coach Pete DeBoer chuckled. “I’ve seen a lot of things over 25 years of coaching. I’ve never seen a clump of beard on the ice before.”

The fluffy furball was quickly stuffed into a Ziplock bag with the label “For the boys.”

In the process, it may have started a trend.

According to Marleau, the Sharks one year started taking clumps of hair and putting them in baggies each time they won a playoff game in their quest for the Cup. It was a way of keeping track as they got closer to their goal. And, as Marleau said, the idea had Thornton’s signature all over it.

Just like the year at the Sharks Christmas party, where players were exchanging individual gifts. “I forget who the defenseman was,” Marleau said, “but I do remember Joe gave the guy a pylon.”

The memory caused Marleau to break into laughter. It’s a trait shared by many of his former coaches and teammates when asked to recall Thornton’s colorful Hall of Fame career.

“I remember coaching Joe and Patrick Marleau for Canada at the 1995-96 U-18 tournament,” DeBoer recalled. “We had an off day, and the team went canoeing at a local lake. The next day we got a call saying the canoe Joe had been using was all mangled up. Who knows how it happened?

“With Joe, it’s never boring. I mean, for example, I’ve never met anyone who liked being naked more than him.”

Say what?

“Here’s an example,” DeBoer said. “I remember during the Stanley Cup Final in 2016, he and Brent Burns were walking around Pittsburgh shirtless like they didn’t have a care in the world. And look at all the interviews he did without a shirt.”

These days William Nylander often goes shirtless when meeting with the media. The Maple Leafs forward admitted last week it’s a habit he got from Thornton, who started the trend years earlier.

“That’s because when you’re sexy like us, you flaunt it,” Thornton said when informed he was the inspiration for Nylander to go tarpless.

“He showed me,” Nylander said with a chuckle when told of Thornton’s comments. “He led the way so I might as well follow.

“He’s 1 of 1. So many good memories, playing with him and getting to know him. So great he’s going into the Hall. So many great memories.”

Detroit Red Wings coach Todd McLellan, who coached Thornton with San Jose from 2008-15, echoed those sentiments, although he remained relatively tight-lipped when queried about some of Jumbo’s more, ah, offside escapes.

“There were multiple instances,” McLellan said. “But if I told you, I’d have to die tomorrow. And I can tell you this: the players can take their tarps off, but the coaches can’t. We’re keeping the tarps on.

“Seriously, what I can say about Joe is that his passion for the game was jumbo-sized. His ability to affect a game was jumbo-sized. His personality around the game was jumbo-sized. And his effect on hockey in San Jose was jumbo-sized.”

So much so the city of San Jose declared Nov. 23, 2024, to be “Joe Thornton Day,” the day on which the Sharks retired his No. 19. During a press conference to announce the occasion, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said some of Thornton’s former teammates had been asked to use one word to describe him. Three of the most popular answers? “Legend,” “icon,” and, of course, “beard.”

Thornton then offered his own response as only Jumbo Joe could.

“I probably would have used the word ‘sexy,’ Mayor,” he said.

Of course he would have.

After all, he’s Jumbo Joe.

* * * *

At his roots, behind the laughs, the jokes, the child-like joie de vivre, Jumbo is all about family, something instilled in him by his parents Mary and Wayne.

Wayne and Mary’s home in St. Thomas is a shrine to their kids, full of trophies, hockey jerseys, you name it. There is a custom-made Bruins shuffleboard table in the basement, in honor of Joe being selected No. 1 by Boston in the 1997 NHL Draft, complete with authentic autographs from Hall of Famers like Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito. Dozens of Joe’s NHL and junior jerseys are everywhere you look, not to mention newspaper articles about him spanning the past three decades. They even have a “Jumbo” Joe Thornton Chia Pet, which Nylander found hilarious when shown a picture of it.

Wayne and Mary became kind of legends themselves in the hockey world for driving all over North America to watch Joe’s games. Instead of flying and staying in hotels, they would hop in the van and commute between cities, sleeping in the back of it as part of their adventures.

One time, when a Bruins official found out Wayne would be sleeping in the van outside the arena after a game, someone suggested to Jumbo’s dad to come sleep at his place.

It was Hall of Famer Bobby Orr who made the offer.

Wayne politely declined. He was enjoying the adventure too much.

Like father, like son.

Today, Thornton is happily married with two kids of his own, 15-year-old daughter Ayla and 12-year-old son River. They’ve also, for the second consecutive season, welcomed 19-year-old Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, to live with them.

“He’s just so positive, so upbeat,” Celebrini said. “He never has a bad day.”

McLellan said Thornton always was a similar mentor with the younger Sharks during his playing days, taking them out for meals and offering guidance whenever possible. He did the same during his lone season with the Maple Leafs in 2020-21 and left such an impact with Auston Matthews that the Toronto captain chose Jumbo as his personal pick to accompany the team during its Mentors’ road trip last season.

“We’re close. We talk all the time," Matthews said. "And I feel like he’s everyone’s mentor here.”

This past summer, Thornton spent time golfing with Matthews in Arizona and visiting former Maple Leafs teammate Mitch Marner in Muskoka, Ontario.

And now, come next Monday, the man known as Jumbo will be enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame, the sport’s biggest showcase.

“Hard to believe,” Thornton said.

Not for those whose lives he’s touched.

And until there is such a thing as a Personality Hall of Fame, the hockey Hall will be the perfect venue to honor the larger-than-life character called Jumbo, thank you very much.