Mike Milbury Suggests That The Sharks Send Joe Thornton To The Minors

Toronto Sun- “You can’t get rid of Thornton, it’s just a pain sending him to the minor leagues at $7 million a year,” Milbury said during the first intermission of a game between the Chicago Blackhawks and New York Rangers Wednesday.

Wow. That take is so hot it should've been brought to me on a sizzling skillet at Applebees with a side of shrimp. What's that saying? You miss 100% of the shots that you don't take? You don't throw up a hail mary and expect it to work every time. Got to take the risk to get the glory. Unfortunately for Milbury, this hail mary fell about 30 yards short of making any sense whatsoever. That's why you have a panel Mike. Maybe run it by them during the break before you blurt it out to millions of people. You're not exactly known for your personnel moves. Kind of the reason you went from being a shitty General Manager to a shitty pregame, postgame analyst. Remember that time you traded Roberto Luongo for Mark Parrish, or the time you send Zdeno Chara and the pick that eventually became Jason Spezza to Ottawa for Alexei Yashin. Yeah, maybe stick to on ice evaluation, Granted, you're not much better at that, but at least the casual fan doesn't know any better. Meanwhile, anyone who has ever tuned into the NBC sports knows that Joe Thornton probably belongs in the NHL.

Unfortunately for Milbury we will never know if this move would have worked out. You know, considering Joe Thornton has a 'no movement clause' in his contract and probably wouldn't take kindly to being a 7 million dollar a year AHLer. But you probably already knew that, right Mike? I bet you probably also knew that Thornton is tied for 4th in the league in assists, tied for 18th in points, and has one of the best face-off percentages in the NHL. I would think those numbers would be valuable to a late season playoff push, but what do I know? I'm not the professional hockey personality. Shame that fans of the Worchester Sharks will never get to see this. Got to imagine that those numbers would translate mighty nicely to the minors. Would probably all but lock up a Calder Cup. Might not be a bad move for Jumbo Joe. Head over to the middle of nowhere Massachusetts and bring home some hardware. Maybe shed that "can't win the big game" label. After all, athletes are measured by championships. An AHL championship has to be worthy of at least an asterisk next to that reputation.