A walking, talking piece of hockey history, Thornton, who inked a one-year deal with the Panthers back in August, has clearly been making a strong impression on his new teammates while taking part in some informal skates in the weeks leading up to training camp, which will open on Thursday at FLA Live Arena.
Heading into his 24th season, the 42-year-old veteran already feels like one of the guys.
"It's been easy," said Thornton. "Like I said before, there's been lots of laughs. I've been here for a long time now. I've gotten to know the guys really well. It's a great group. It's been really enjoyable so far."
When the Panthers announced they'd signed Thornton, captain Aleksander Barkov couldn't believe it.
"It was one of the best days of the summer, for sure," Barkov said.
Despite the on-ice benefits that he'll bring to the Panthers, Barkov said he expects Thornton, a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame, to also have a positive impact on players like himself off the ice, much like Jaromir Jagr did when he was dropping daily words of wisdom on his teammates in South Florida from 2015-17.
"He's one of those legends who's still playing hockey," Barkov said. "There's so much stuff can you learn from him both on ice and off ice. It's just like when Jagr came in a few years ago. I learned so much from him - how to play hockey, how to live a professional hockey life. For sure, I'm going to learn more from Jumbo. He's been great so far. He's a great guy, awesome teammate. We haven't even started yet."
Already the league's active scoring leader with 1,529 points - which is also good enough for 14th place on the all-time list - Thornton, the No. 1 pick in the 1997 NHL Draft, has previously won the Hart Trophy, the Art Ross Trophy and has also been named to six All-Star Games since his debut season back in 1997-98.
And after spending the majority of his career with the Bruins (1997-98 to 2005-06) and Sharks (2005-06 to 2019-20), he showed that he still had plenty left in the tank when he tallied 20 points (five goals, 15 assists) in 44 games with the Maple Leafs this past season, while also scoring one goal in the playoffs.
Having already accomplished so much, it's those battles in the postseason that keep him going.
That's also why he chose the Panthers.
Fresh off a season in which they finished with the fourth-best record in the league and also took the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Lightning to six games during the playoffs, Thornton believes the Panthers have all the pieces needed to make an even deeper run during the upcoming 2021-22 season.
"Riding off last year's confidence, I think this is going to be a special year," he said.
