No, no. Joe Thornton is not that old. He doesn't even look like he is after shaving his famous beard. But last night in Dallas San Jose Sharks' center played his 1,500th NHL game. That's second most among active players, only behind his longtime Sharks teammate Patrick Marleau. These two are the only players drafted in 1997 who still play in the league.

Everyone knows "Jumbo Joe". He's a living legend. Maybe not many fans know or remember that for all the hype players like Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Connor McDavid get (and rightly so), two of the top three single-season performances point-wise among active players still belong to Thornton. His 125 points from the 2005-06 campaign, shared between Boston Bruins and Sharks, is number one, with his 114 one year later being third, behind Crosby's 120 the same season.

Joe Thornton at his best was seeing everything, collecting assists like crazy. It was fitting that he celebrated his milestone with an assist to the other Joe, "Little Joe" Pavelski last night at Dallas, the place of one of his famous plays - "The Pass" to Marleau. Do you remember this one?

He's obviously not at his best right now as 39-year-old but that one pass alone would make you hail Thornton as the best passer of his generation. And there were some carbon copies throughout his career.

He now has 1,032 assists and 1,431 points. That's most in the NHL since 1997 when "Jumbo Joe" entered the league. But accidentally, 1997 is also the year when NHL started to record another stat, which Thornton probably would not want you to know - giveaways. It's surely not common knowledge that just like in assists, no one can beat Joe Thornton in giving the puck away.

He has done it 1,161 times in regular season games and that's also more than any other player, with his teammate Brent Burns (933) distant second during that span. Maybe it's in the beard. Last night in Dallas they both recorded two giveaways.

While it won't change an opinion on Thornton's immense offensive and passing skills, it's probably good to know, especially since everyone seems to talk about his positive stats. And while this not so commonly evoked stat may seem shocking at first, it's not so strange. In fact, top ten all-time (that's since 1997-98 season here) players in giveaways appear to be either star forwards or top offensive defensemen. Just look at the list:

Joe Thornton - 1,161 giveaways

Brent Burns - 933

Zdeno Chara - 879

Alex Ovechkin - 875

Jason Spezza - 854

Ryan Getzlaf - 839

Patrick Marleau - 823

Andrei Markov - 817

Drew Doughty - 782

Ilya Kovalchuk 760

And there's probably nothing that should surprise us here. Top offensive players are those who register most ice-time and who try risky plays more often. That's the reason they give the puck away more times than grinders. And that's also what makes them... well, top offensive players. We all know these famous motivational words by Michael Jordan on the left, probably no one knows whether he has ever said.

So, probably without being a master of giveaways, Joe Thornton would not be a master of assists. As another sports icon, king of assists, goals, points and every other thing himself, once said (or not) "you miss 100 % of the passes you don't take". Or something like that.