Joe Thornton vs Leon Draisaitl. Better player?

[Hockey2Hockey]

Can mods move this to poll section please.

Thornton: 4 NHL All Star Teams, Hart, 2010 Olympic gold, Art Ross, 1,539 points in 1,714 games, .71 ppg in postseason.

Draisaitl: Rocket, Art Ross, Lindsay, Hart, 3 NHL All Star Teams after this year, 956 points in 790 games, 1.47 ppg in postseason.

I take Thornton. Not by much. He had the toughest matchups and was still a top 5 C throughout his career.

What say you?

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Draisaitl by a very wide margin

 

[PistolPete]

Can mods move this to poll section please.

Thornton: 4 NHL All Star Teams, Hart, 2010 Olympic gold, Art Ross, 1,539 points in 1,714 games, .71 ppg in postseason.

Draisaitl: Rocket, Art Ross, Lindsay, Hart, 3 NHL All Star Teams after this year, 956 points in 790 games, 1.47 ppg in postseason.

I take Thornton. Not by much. He had the toughest matchups and was still a top 5 C throughout his career.

What say you?

Two very different players. Funny enough, they complement each other more than they'd ever be competing against each other.

But in the end, if I was stacking my team, I'd pick Draisaitl

And how can you include an Olympic gold medal for Thornton in the accolades when even now Drsisailt has no hope on hell of winning one?

Including team achievements in a player's personal accolades has never made sense to me.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Can mods move this to poll section please.

The site rules require a certain length of tenure before new accounts are allowed to start Poll threads.

 

[Hockey2Hockey]

The site rules require a certain length of tenure before new accounts are allowed to start Poll threads.

I was wondering why it wouldn't allow me to add a poll. Thx.

 

[HugeInTheShire]

This is easily Draisaitl

 

[Hockey2Hockey]

This is easily Draisaitl

Easily?

 

[Felidae]

Leon Draisatl
Points: 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 7, 8
Goals: 1, 2, 2, 4, 4, 4
Hart: 1, 1-3?, 7, 8, 9

Thornton
Points: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8
Hart: 1, 4, 5, 5, 6, 9

I don't think it's a wide margin but I'd take Draisatl here. His art Ross competition was tougher but still has the more higher and numerous top 10 points finishes. His hart finishes would be slightly better if he were not on the same team as McDavid.

Even going beyond the stats, I prefer Draisatl due to his more versatile offensive arsenal.

​

 

[Canovin]

Drai is about as good as a playmaker as Thornton while also challenge for the Rocket each year and is a playoffs monster. I don't think it's close.

 

[Phion Keneuf]

Drai mainly for relative playoff performance

 

[JackSlater]

Draisaitl. Very close when things are easy, quite possibly an edge to Thornton. Definitely Draisaitl when things get tough though.

 

[PB37]

By a comfortable margin, Drai, even without considering playoff resume.

 

[NVious]

Drai, Thornton doesn't even sniff Drai's jock, you can try and pitch the crazy idea that playoffs and season should matter the same (no they shouldn't), but even then, Thornton isn't running away with anything.

Drai all day every day 365

 

[NYR94]

Draisaitl

 

[Bgav]

Drai

 

[HugeInTheShire]

Easily?

Yep, Joe was maybe a slightly better passer but he can't compete with Leon when it comes to scoring goals.

Leon already has 399 goals to Joe's 430 but has played 900 less games.

 

[Draiskull]

Next year Drasaitl will likely have more career goals than Joe in about 900 less games played.

Jumbo Joe was a great passer and managed to play in NHL for a long time. If Draisaitl matches Thornton in games played he wil have a shot at Ovechkin's goal record AND career 2000 pts.

 

[Draiskull]

Easily?

Thornton had only 2 100pts+ seasons and he played 25 of them. Joe was a less than PPG player Drai has 956pts in 790GP
Draisaitl in 10 seasons has almost caught up to him in goals and is close to 1000 pts.

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

I can't see a single argument for Thornton here and he was fantastic. Draisaitl is just on another level, especially in the playoffs

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Easily?

Yes, Draisaitl passes Thornton in every metric available

 

[Cup Or Bust]

Would anyone want Thornton over Draisaitl?

 

[Rebels57]

It's Draisaitl and it's not close.

 

[Romang67]

Thornton had only 2 100pts+ seasons and he played 25 of them. Joe was a less than PPG player Drai has 956pts in 790GP
Draisaitl in 10 seasons has almost caught up to him in goals and is close to 1000 pts.

Draisaitl has played in a considerably higher scoring era. Thornton played in the DPE, and in the DPE 2.0, with a brief period of higher scoring for like 3 seasons after the lockout.

The league scoring on average over the period 2017-2025 is right around where the league scoring was in 2005 when Thornton had 125 points.

 

[Canadiens Ghost]

Draisaitl
Thornton was a better playmaker but Draisaitl is better overall.

 

[wetcoast]

Draisaitl by a very wide margin

Pretty much this.

Draisaitl has 8 seasons top 10 scoring and a much better playoff resume then Joe who has 6 top 10 finishes.

Heck Draisaitl is probably even with him at worst right now career wise and the gap will only get bigger.

Fun fact Leon is only 3 playoff points behind Jumbo Joe.