According to a tweet from the San Jose Mercury News' David Pollak, the San Jose Sharks Joe Thornton will head to Switzerland to play due to the NHL lockout.
"It sucks leaving here but I've still got to play," Pollak quoted Thornton as saying in his tweet.
Thornton went to Davos, Switzerland during the last lockout in 2004-05 and spends time there each year due to his wife being from there.
"Yes, just because my wife is from there, she has a home there, we go there five weeks in the summer to see her family and I actually train when I'm over there," Thornton told ESPN.com on Monday. "I know the team real well, and they know me. It's a natural fit for me to go back there and play."
Thornton won't be alone as Sharks center Logan Couture said Monday morning that he's close to heading to Switzerland as well. Couture is talking with Geneva in the same league where Thornton played during the 2004-05 lockout, according to Pollak.
The forthcoming departures of Thornton and Couture are part of a busy week for the Sharks even with the lockout being official. Also on Monday, the Sharks sent 16 players to Worcester of the AHL.
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