Joe Thornton Trade - A Year Later

It's been over a year now since Joe Thornton was shipped off to San Jose by the abysmal Boston management, but this week brought back memories of the trade since the Bruins trade Brad Stuart and Wayne Primeau, two of the three players received in the Thornton trade.

The trade was a travesty at the time. Thornton had been the face of the franchise for most of his 8 years in Boston. He was on a pace this year to score more points than any other year in his career (and ended up winning the MVP). He hadn't been the leader that the team expected him to be, but some players aren't meant to be leaders. All blame should've been heaped on Bruins management, which runs the Bruins like Kramerica, for giving Joe the captaincy so early on and not recognizing Thornton was unfit for the job. Why resign him in the offseasn if you were unhappy with the way he had played?

So, here we are a year later. Stuart, the best player Boston got in the deal, is shipped off with Primeau for Andrew Ferrence and Chuck Kobasew. Kobasew seems like the best chip acquired, but if Boston is frustrated with the maturation of Brad Boyes, then why should Kobasew's ineffectiveness be seen differently? It seems like Boston keeps getting ten cents on the dollar and the way Jacobs values money, you'd think he'd realize that's not positive. At a certain point you become speechless as you watch a hockey town, which today embraces College Hockey's Beanpot final, lose face in a historic franchise.