The Sharks will be without center Joe Thornton for at least a couple of weeks. And they can only hope the results of Wednesday’s MRI exam on the right knee he injured late Tuesday doesn’t spell the end of his season and — possibly — his tenure with the team.
Playing on an $8 million, one-year deal he signed after having surgery to repair ACL and MCL tears to his left knee in the offseason, Thornton sustained what the team believes is damage to his right MCL late in Tuesday’s 5-4 overtime loss to Winnipeg.
Thornton’s right knee buckled and he fell awkwardly in front of the San Jose bench after a collision with teammate Mikkel Boedker.
“You can jump to conclusions, and we’ve been right sometimes and we’ve been wrong sometimes,” Sharks general manager Doug Wilson said. “I don’t like to guess. I’m an optimist by nature, and so is Jumbo.”
Thornton, 38, has missed only 12 of 973 regular-season games since being acquired by the Sharks from Boston nearly 13 years ago. He has appeared in all 47 games this season, and is second on the team in goals (13) and points (36). Seven games short of 1,500 for his career, the future Hall of Famer is 12th all-time with 1,030 assists and 16th in points with 1,427.
The Sharks, who host the Rangers on Thursday before the weekend’s All-Star break, have 35 regular-season games remaining. That includes six over the next two weeks.
“The nice thing is that this isn’t happening in game No. 5 when we still don’t know what our identity is as a team or what works for us,” said Sharks coach Peter DeBoer, whose team is 5-1-1 since its bye week. “The young guys have had 40 games to get some confidence and figure out how they can be successful at this level.”
DeBoer could move either Tomas Hertl and Joe Pavelski from wing to the middle to replace Thornton. Both have experience playing center, although Pavelski hasn’t been a full-time center outside of international competition since 2012-13.
“It doesn’t change,” Pavelski said. “We’ve had guys miss time before. … You’ve got to raise your game a little bit. Where we’re at, we’ve been playing good, so there can’t be any dip in our details.”
Wilson said Thornton’s injury doesn’t necessarily change the way he’s approaching the Feb. 26 trade deadline. He has historically added pieces that fit for now and the future when the Sharks are in contention, and this year the Sharks have cap space with which Wilson can work as well.
“He inspired a lot of those guys to step up, and now they need to step up even more,” Wilson said of Thornton’s influence on emerging young players including Chris Tierney, Joonas Donskoi, Timo Meier and Hertl.
“I think we’re set up,” said Wilson. He added, however, that “no team likes to lose a player like this for any length of time.”
Ross McKeon is a freelance writer. Twitter: @rossmckeon
Sharks on Thursday
Who: Rangers (24-20-5) at Sharks (26-14-7)
When: 7:30 p.m.
TV/Radio: NBCSCA/98.5