What would be Joe Thornton’s legacy if his assists were switched with goals

[TheGuiminator]

Summer offseason threads—let’s get them going!

Let’s break down season by season how Joe Thornton’s career would look like if we swapped his assists with his goals for each year.

1997-98: 4G, 3A, 7PTS

1998-99: 25G, 16A, 41PTS

1999-2000: 37G, 23A, 60PTS

2000-01: 34G, 37A, 71PTS

2001-02: 46G, 22A, 68PTS

2002-03: 65G, 36A, 101PTS

2003-04: 50G, 23A, 73PTS

2005-06: 96G, 29A, 125PTS

2006-07: 92G, 22A, 114PTS

2007-08: 67G, 29A, 96PTS

2008-09: 61G, 25A, 86PTS

2009-10: 69G, 20A, 89PTS

2010-11: 49G, 21A, 70PTS

2011-12: 59G, 18A, 77PTS

2012-13: 33G, 7A, 40PTS

2013-14: 65G, 11A, 76PTS

2014-15: 49G, 16A, 65PTS

2015-16: 63G, 19A, 82PTS

2016-17: 43G, 7A, 50PTS

2017-18: 23G, 13A, 36PTS

2018-19: 35G, 16A, 51PTS

2019-20: 24G, 7A, 31PTS

2020-21: 15G, 5A, 20PTS

2021-22: 5G, 5A, 10PTS

Total : 1,109G, 430A, 1,539PTS (1,714GP)

Bolded = League leader

If Thornton had been a pure goal-scorer, his career would’ve been quite different, despite having the same number of points he actually has. He would have 10 Rocket Richard Trophies, back-to-back 90+ goals season, and would have broken Gretzky’s single-season goal record with 96 goals and the career goal total record. He would also have the most consecutive seasons winning the Rocket Richard Trophy with 7, and the most 50+ goal seasons with 10. He might have won at least two additional Hart Trophies in 2003 and 2007, though I haven’t done a deep dive on this. His playoff numbers would remain unchanged, however.

Would your perception of Joe Thornton be different if he was a pure goal-scorer instead of a pure playmaker? Would his all-time ranking be higher if his assists were switched with his goals? Dead serious question.

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[Legion34]

What would tie Domis legacy be if we swapped his penalty minutes for points?

 

[Video Nasty]

He’d be pretty clearly top 10 in this scenario.

He’d nuke another player’s legacy single-handedly (Ovechkin) and would have a 24% lead on Gretzky for all-time goals. Some of those seasons, he’d be scoring 35% of his team’s goals, which I don’t think has ever been done. I doubt he would be given much grief for shouldering that much of his team’s scoring load.

His playoff goal scoring wouldn’t be as prestigious, but he’d still have the 5th most playoff goals while playing 13-49 games fewer than the three players just ahead of him, and some really nice individual runs of 18 in 24, 14 in 18, and 10 in 11.

If such a version of this player existed, someone who was seemingly so automatic with their goal scoring prowess, I’d have to imagine that the real world results would play out differently and his team’s would win a lot more games, if those stats magically flipped.

 

[DitchMarner]

Are goals worth so much more than assists that flipping goal and assist totals for a ~100 player all-time would make him a top five or ten player in history?

I definitely think goals are more valuable than secondary assists. To me they have equal value to primaries. How many more primary points would Thornton have if his goal and assist totals were swapped? It seems unlikely to me the swap alone would be enough to make him a top five or ten player.

 

[Regal]

Are goals worth so much more than assists that flipping goal and assist totals for a ~100 player all-time would make him a top five or ten player in history?

I definitely think goals are more valuable than secondary assists. To me they have equal value to primaries. How many more primary points would Thornton have if his goal and assist totals were swapped? It seems unlikely to me the swap alone would be enough to make him a top five or ten player.

I definitely think it matters when the splits are so crazy. With Thornton, he has 1113 primary points. In this scenario he’d have 1109 goals. So almost the same number of goals as he currently has primary points. If he had the same percentage of secondaries on his assists as he does currently (38.4%), he’d have 265 primary assists on his hypothetical 430 assists. That puts his primary points at 1374 combined. That’s 23.5% more primary points than he currently has.

Would also improve his trophy case. Obviously the 9 Richards, but he’d almost certainly win the Lindsay in ‘06 in this instance, and the Hart and Lindsay in ‘07. Possibly both in ‘03 as well.

 

[Midnight Judges]

1100 goals and 430 assists - that would be a ridiculous goals to assists ratio lol. I doubt any modern player with significant games played comes anywhere near that.

 

[sr edler]

Better question is probably, how would his game have looked with that ratio.

 

[blundluntman]

If everything else remained the same, his legacy may be even worse than it is now.

Just imagine someone with a goals-to-assist ratio that low never winning a cup despite playing on some great teams. People would be calling him a selfish puck hog and toxic locker room cancer that let individual stats get in the way of winning. He'd be the greatest goal scorer of all time by far, but a lot of fans would instinctively criticize everything else about his career as a way to rebel against the hype around his individual achievements.

Even funnier, they'd probably romanticize the current Joe Thornton and say he would've won a cup or 2 if he cared more about setting his teammates up.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

What would Carey Price’s legacy be if we swapped his career shots against for points?

 

[Bear of Bad News]

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

It's mid-August in the NHL, if this thread didn't make it clear.