Sharks Joe Thornton to GM Wilson: ‘Doug just needs to shut his mouth’

SAN JOSE — Until Friday, the biggest question surrounding the Sharks was whether or not they would make the playoffs.

But after veteran center Joe Thornton sparked a brushfire across the NHL by accusing general manager Doug Wilson of lying about the circumstances under which Thornton lost the captaincy last summer, a bigger question looms:

How fractured is this franchise?

“I think Doug just needs to shut his mouth,” Thornton said after his team’s morning practice. “I think that’s the bottom line.”

Thornton added: “All I’ve got to say is I’ve been here every day working hard. I haven’t taken a sabbatical. He just needs to stop lying, shut his mouth.”

In a session with about 350 season-ticket holder the previous night, Wilson offered a more detailed account of why Thornton lost the ‘C’ on his jersey than in the past.

The Sharks have gone with four alternate captains this season with Thornton a part of that leadership group.

The general manager prefaced his remarks with praise for Thornton and his love for hockey.

“He cares about the game so much. The reason we took the ‘C’ off him . . . He carries the weight of the team on his shoulders and he’s got such a big heart that when stress comes on him he lashes out at people,” Wilson said, “and it kind of impacts them.

“The pressure and stress, I felt, was getting to Joe,” the general manager continued. “And I sat him down and said we need other players to step up and share this. Leadership group in this league is a shared thing, it’s not one guy. This says a lot about Joe. He got it. He didn’t like it, but he got it and he understood.”

Wilson declined requests for a response to Thornton’s comments, but the general manager told CSN Bay Area, “If (Thornton’s) got an issue, he knows exactly where I am, and I’ll be glad to talk to him about it. There’s zero issue here. I was asked a question at a season-ticket holder function, and my response was to do my job and be accountable to our season ticket holders and tell the truth.”

There have been signs since last spring’s painful first-round playoff elimination that Wilson and Thornton did not see eye-to-eye, but this most public rift comes at a particularly bad time.

The Sharks have won four of their last five games in a desperation drive to make the playoffs for an eleventh consecutive season. The exchange has the potential to create a serious distraction — especially with four road games in Canada on tap after Saturday’s matinee against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Thornton’s teammates did not want to get in the middle of the dispute. But privately they said he remains a popular figure in the room and has had their support all season.

Coach Todd McLellan recognized the added challenge he faces, but tried to play down the extent of the problem.

“We have 14 games left and we’ve got our game going right now in the right direction. I think the guys are committed to playing and winning,” McLellan said after learning of Thornton’s reaction.

“As far as Jumbo goes, I’ve been around him every day this year and he’s been excellent with the young players, the old players, the coaching staff,” McLellan added. “I think he can continue to do that and play well and get us into the playoffs.”

Whatever resentment Thornton may have been feeling this season, his numbers on the ice have been solid. He leads the team with 44 assists and his 57 points in 64 games are second highest on the Sharks.

In January 2014, Wilson signed both Thornton and Patrick Marleau to three-year contract extensions that included no-movement clauses.

“We think we’re set very well for the future,” the general manager said at the time, “and we also think we’re in a very good position to focus on the now.”

The now, unfortunately for the Sharks, ended with San Jose losing four in a row after winning the first three games of its playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings.

Afterward, Wilson talked about the need for a rebuild as well as a culture change, referring at one time to the Sharks as a “tomorrow” team before later clarifying that the expectation of making the playoffs remained. He suggested some veterans might not want to go through the process.

Wilson never asked Thornton or Marleau to waive their no-trade clauses and insists he was not opening the door for them to leave, but the players and the outside world saw it differently.

When training camp opened in September, Thornton bristled at the Sharks being described as a “tomorrow team.” Asked if Wilson’s description could provide extra motivation this season, Thornton responded:

“I have enough motivation. I don’t need somebody else telling me we can’t do it.”

Publicly at least, things had quieted down since then.

For more on the Sharks, see David Pollak’s Working the Corners blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/sharks. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/PollakOnSharks.