I started writing for the blog in 2013. Chris Thorburn had a contract expire and was re-signed in that time. He has not improved as a player and has most inhibited the progress of young forwards who were either not played or played alongside a bad player because he is seen as good in the room. While this might be true, this does not mean that Thorburn should be taking up a roster spot because people like him. If you are likeable, but bad at your job at some point your company has to cut you loose, what is what the Jets have failed to do with Thorburn.
Thorburn is a player who is good at nothing and master of nothing. He exists to play on a bad team, making bad plays, and taking ice time away from better, younger players or simply hindering those same players by being their linemate. Thorburn is easy to evaluate: bad fighter, bad player, somehow still has a place on the Jets years after turning over a new leaf and moving to a new city. That day is gone now and the Jets really, truly need to move on from Thorburn.
Although he is better than Brandon Tanev, Thorburn is still a bad NHL player and should not be in the league anymore. He has never been a good NHLer and yet he was one of the first players that got moved up in the line under Claude Noel. For Paul Maurice he is more of a security blanket, someone he sees as being good enough to shelter kids with even though he does nothing with the ice time he gets.
Thorburn came into the franchise from the Pittsburgh Penguins, where he spent most of his time in the minors save for one season where he played 39 NHL games. The next year he signed with the Atlanta Thrashers and became a NHL regular. The rest, they say, is history and now 10 years and 709 years later the Chris Thorburn Era of the shared history of the Thrashers and Jets could be over. Thorburn established himself as a NHL player without having any notable skills. He cannot fight never mind the more refined skills in hockey like shooting and scoring. Despite all that, Thorburn played 750 games in the NHL and if he never plays another game at the highest level, he can be proud with what he accomplished.
