Joe Thornton's former teammate brings him to tears during jersey retirement ceremony.

What a surreal moment this must have been for Joe Thornton and his family.

On Saturday, the San Jose Sharks made perhaps one of the easiest decisions in franchise history when they chose to retire number 19 to the rafters in honor of long time Sharks forward Joe Thornton. Thornton was an iconic member of the Sharks franchise for a significant portion of that team's history and will very likely go down as one of the greatest players to ever wear a Sharks jersey during his career in the National Hockey League.

The Sharks put on a beautiful ceremony ahead of the official raising of the banner on Saturday, one that included many of Thornton's long time friends and teammates including the likes of Patrick Marleau, Joe Pavelski and more.

It would be Patrick Marleau that perhaps would draw the most emotion out of the normally stoic Thornton when discussing the fact that their jerseys would now sit together side by side in the rafters, just as Thornton and Marleau battled together, side by side, for so many years in San Jose.

"To see Jumbo's banner next to mine up there is... it just makes me happy," said Marleau with a tremble of emotion in his own voice.

The emotion was clearly visible on the faces of both Thornton and Marleau throughout this ceremony and it is great to see that the two men still have such great love and admiration for one another even after their NHL careers have come to a close. Thornton thanked Marleau for sharing the burden with him during his speech and both men could been seen wiping away tears.

Thornton even took a moment to thank the new kid on the block, praising Sharks rookie Macklin Celebrini for helping out with his kid's math homework.

It was a wonderful ceremony overall and you can see Thornton watching his banner being raised to the rafters while in the embrace of his family in the short clip below: