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Owner to Thornton, Wilson: ‘What happens with Sharks, stays with Sharks’

GERMANY-SOCIETY-CHARITY-ECONOMY-PLATTNER

GERMANY-SOCIETY-CHARITY-ECONOMY-PLATTNER

AFP/Getty Images

Hockey fans don’t hear the name Hasso Plattner (pictured prominently on the right) very often, but then again, big-name players don’t usually tell their GMs to “shut their mouths” every day, either.

Things have gotten ugly enough - or really, ugly in public enough - for the San Jose Sharks’ owner to step in to squash Doug Wilson and Joe Thornton’s squabble, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

Plattner used a famous Las Vegas tagline to try to cool each sides’ jets (or at least keep things in-house).

Via email, Hasso Plattner confirmed he talked to both Joe Thornton and Doug Wilson. Asked what he said, he replied, “What happens (with) the Sharks stays with the Sharks. All good.”

As Friedman notes, Thornton has a lot of power thanks to the no-trade clause on his contract, which just kicked in this season (after being inked before his last one expired in 2013-14).

It’s been quite the drama ever since the Los Angeles Kings pulled a “reverse sweep” on the Sharks, leading to Thornton being stripped of the captaincy and a summer full of strange, sometimes contradictory statements about rebuilding-or-maybe-not from Sharks management.

All this time, it seemed to be a situation that was handled by typical faces like Wilson and head coach Todd McLellan, but now Plattner becomes a more public owner than he’s been before (or at least has in recent memory). One would imagine he might not be very thrilled with that, and considering the message to focus on the playoffs ... things could get messy if San Jose falls short of the postseason for the first time in many years.

Follow James O’Brien @cyclelikesedins