A home can be a difficult thing for professional athletes to find. So once Thorburn found his place with an NHL franchise, he stayed with it even while it moved around on him.
A second-round pick (No. 50) of the Buffalo Sabres in the 2001 NHL Draft, the Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, native earned a reputation as a crash-and-bang forward who skates well enough to kill penalties. The 6-foot-3, 235-pound wing also demonstrates that he is unafraid to do whatever his team needs, whether it is putting himself in harm's way by blocking shots, taking a hit or dropping the gloves.
A home can be a difficult thing for professional athletes to find. So once Thorburn found his place with an NHL franchise, he stayed with it even while it moved around on him.
A second-round pick (No. 50) of the Buffalo Sabres in the 2001 NHL Draft, the Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, native earned a reputation as a crash-and-bang forward who skates well enough to kill penalties. The 6-foot-3, 235-pound wing also demonstrates that he is unafraid to do whatever his team needs, whether it is putting himself in harm's way by blocking shots, taking a hit or dropping the gloves.
Thorburn's brief first stay in the NHL lasted two games and 19 shifts. He made his NHL debut on Dec. 2, 2005 in a 5-0 loss to the San Jose Sharks. Two days later, Thorburn assisted on the opening goal of a 6-4 Buffalo win against the Colorado Avalanche for his first NHL point in what would be his final game with the team. After being sent back to the American Hockey League for the rest of the 2005-06 season, the Pittsburgh Penguins claimed Thorburn on waivers on prior to the 2006-07 season.
Over a 39-game run with the Penguins, Thorburn scored his first NHL goal as part of a two-point game against the Anaheim Ducks on Nov. 6, 2006, and scored his first game-winning goal, against the New York Islanders, on Nov. 28, 2006. But when Pittsburgh traded Thorburn to the Atlanta Thrashers on June 23, 2007, he found a place where he could play every day.
Thorburn played 73 games in 2007-08, and from then on, both in Atlanta and Winnipeg, it became a rarity for Thorburn to not be playing whenever the franchise took the ice.
A gifted penalty killer, Thorburn finished tied for fifth in the NHL with three shorthanded goals in 2009-10. The next season he led Thrashers forwards with 71 blocked shots, ranked third with 128 hits and, on Oct. 15, 2010, scored his first power-play goal in the NHL.
In each of his first four years in Atlanta, Thorburn finished second on the team to Eric Boulton in major penalties. Once the franchise relocated to Winnipeg for the 2011-12 season, and Boulton was no longer with the team, Thorburn regularly led the team in that category.
A free agent in 2014, Thorburn signed a three-year contract with Winnipeg.
On Feb. 8, 2015, he was whistled for two fighting majors that enabled him surpass Boulton as the all-time most penalized player in franchise history. On Dec. 18, 2015, Thorburn played in his 595th game to surpass Ilya Kovalchuk for the most games played in franchise history.
