Joe Thornton vs Leon Draisaitl. Better player?

[Diglett]

Drai.

Not even close.

 

[TheBeard]

How much of Leon’s success comes from playing with McDavid?

Did Thornton ever get the luxury of playing with someone of the caliber?

 

[Rorschach]

I'll take multi-dimensional Drai over much less able Thornton. If I had both on one team, I would make Drai my 1C/1PP W and Thornton the 2C/1PP C.

 

[Draiskull]

This could be close if only talking about assists\playmaking.

Thornton 1109 assists in 1714GP
Drai has 557 in 790 GP.

Double Drai's assists and GP and we are 1114 assists in 1580GP

Drai will likely slow down and will likely not play 1700 NHL games but even then he is on par with Thornton as a playmaker while being a better finisher.

 

[unicornpig]

thorton, played with scrubs and made them all stars. divesaitl cant play a game without one shift with mcdavid.

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

Draisaitl AINEC

 

[Draiskull]

How much of Leon’s success comes from playing with McDavid?

Did Thornton ever get the luxury of playing with someone of the caliber?

typical comment in any McDavid or Draisaitl related threads.

Fact that Thornton had only 2 30+goal seasons in over 20 he played (both with BOS) hint that he played with some decent finishers to get all his apples.

 

[Draiskull]

thorton, played with scrubs and made them all stars. divesaitl cant play a game without one shift with mcdavid.

Pretty sure the numbers show that Draisaitl has produced at a better rate when McDavid isnt suited up but glad you got your shot in.

 

[MessierII]

Draisaitl for sure. What’s actually funny is when he was asked leading up to the draft what NHL player he plays like and he said he compared himself to Joe Thornton. Everyone thought he was being arrogant but he ended up being better than him.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

thorton, played with scrubs and made them all stars. divesaitl cant play a game without one shift with mcdavid.

Is that you Joe?

 

[McFlyingV]

Draisaitl by a mile.

 

[JFedol]

Drai.

 

[Forgot About Drai]

How much of Leon’s success comes from playing with McDavid?

Did Thornton ever get the luxury of playing with someone of the caliber?

Im sure you dont mean anything by it but like this post a surefire way to know that some one doesnt watch Drai or the Oilers.

 

[MessierII]

How much of Leon’s success comes from playing with McDavid?

Did Thornton ever get the luxury of playing with someone of the caliber?

thorton, played with scrubs and made them all stars. divesaitl cant play a game without one shift with mcdavid.

In the absence of McDavid as in McDavid is out of the lineup entirely:

2018-2019: 4 games 6 pts
2019-2020: 7 games 12 pts
2021-2022: 1 game 1 pt
2023-2024: 6 games 16 pts
2024-2025: 5 games 10 pts

 

[JFedol]

I'm not f***ing sure why Thronton never worked on his shot?

I get him being a pure playmaker but you can't just expect to just pass the puck all the time lol

 

[Coach Reggie Dunlop]

Drai ainec.

 

[McFlyingV]

thorton, played with scrubs and made them all stars. divesaitl cant play a game without one shift with mcdavid.

Thornton played a ton of minutes with Marleau, Pavelski, Heatley, and Hertl during his prime years. Draisaitl has spent significantly more time away from McDavid 5v5 than with him over the past 5 years.

 

[unicornpig]

Thornton played a ton of minutes with Marleau, Pavelski, Heatley, and Hertl during his prime years. Draisaitl has spent significantly more time away from McDavid 5v5 than with him over the past 5 years.

you do realize thorton, played in boston as well right? dont act like drai doesn't play with mcdavid every playoffs cause you cant.

thorton turned cheechoo and muarry into all stars. which teamate has drai helped just elevate their game let alone get them into elite status.

 

[Duke74]

thorton, played with scrubs and made them all stars. divesaitl cant play a game without one shift with mcdavid.

There's always one in the crowd

 

[McFlyingV]

you do realize thorton, played in boston as well right? dont act like drai doesn't play with mcdavid every playoffs cause you cant.

Yes I'm well aware. And I'm also aware Thornton played on stacked SJ teams, and underachieved every playoffs.

I don't need to act. I can look at the numbers and tell you that the past 3 post-seasons Draisaitl has played 352 out of 855 minutes with McDavid at 5v5. A whopping 41%.

 

[unicornpig]

of cou

Yes I'm well aware. And I'm also aware Thornton played on stacked SJ teams, and underachieved every playoffs.

I don't need to act. I can look at the numbers and tell you that the past 3 post-seasons Draisaitl has played 352 out of 855 minutes with McDavid at 5v5. A whopping 41%.

41 percent is nearly half the damn game haha

 

[McFlyingV]

of cou

41 percent is nearly half the damn game haha

And? He has 17 5v5 points with McDavid and 17 5v5 points without McDavid over that time period, with much worse wingers than Thornton played with in SJ. But of course as per usual its always just McDavid.

Lets not even talk about the fact that Draisaitl is almost without a doubt going to pass Joe in career playoff points this post-season in almost 100 fewer games.

 

[BraveCanadian]

Drai without even a second thought

 

[ManofSteel55]

thorton, played with scrubs and made them all stars. divesaitl cant play a game without one shift with mcdavid.

What revisionist history.

Joe Pavelski wasn't a scrub. Patrick Marleau wasn't a scrub. Dany Heatley might not have been Atlanta/Ottawa level Heatley, but he wasn't a scrub. At least not when he first arrived in San Jose. Tomas Hertl wasn't a scrub. I'd even argue that Jonathan Chechoo wasn't a scrub either, until he blew out his knee and could no longer keep up. Was he a product of Thornton? Yes, largely, but he was actually good for a time as well.

Thornton never had a McDavid to play with, but he wasn't with a never ending line up of bums either.

 

[unicornpig]

What revisionist history.

Joe Pavelski wasn't a scrub. Patrick Marleau wasn't a scrub. Dany Heatley might not have been Atlanta/Ottawa level Heatley, but he wasn't a scrub. At least not when he first arrived in San Jose. Tomas Hertl wasn't a scrub. I'd even argue that Jonathan Chechoo wasn't a scrub either, until he blew out his knee and could no longer keep up. Was he a product of Thornton? Yes, largely, but he was actually good for a time as well.

Thornton never had a McDavid to play with, but he wasn't with a never ending line up of bums either.

cheechoo and glen murray were absolute scrubs before they played with thorton. sharks never had to go nuclear and stack up a line like mcdrai, and its mainly due to thorton could carry his own line.

marleau, pavelski were on their own lines, hertl was awas just starting to play when he played with. haha clown arguments. youd never see thorton play half the game with marleau and pavelski