Patrick Marleau

Patrick Marleau
Marleau with the San Jose Sharks in April 2016
Born	(1979-09-15) September 15, 1979 (age 45) Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada
Height	6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Weight	212 lb (96 kg; 15 st 2 lb)
Position	Centre / Left wing
Shot	Left
Played for	San Jose Sharks Toronto Maple Leafs Pittsburgh Penguins
National team	Canada
NHL draft	2nd overall, 1997 San Jose Sharks
Playing career	1997–2021

Patrick Denis Marleau (born September 15, 1979) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey forward. With 1,779 NHL games played, he is the all-time leader in regular season games played in league history. He passed the record previously held by Gordie Howe in his 1,768th game on April 19, 2021. Marleau scored 1,197 points during his entire NHL career. The San Jose Sharks drafted Marleau second overall in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft, and Marleau spent the vast majority of his NHL career with the franchise, becoming its all-time leader in goals, even strength goals, power play goals, points, shots, and games played. Marleau is also the fourth player in National Hockey League history to record 900 consecutive games played, reaching the mark one game after breaking the overall games played record. He was the third-last active player who played in the NHL in the 1990s, with the other being Zdeno Chára and Joe Thornton.

Marleau is one of just five NHL players to play 1,400 games with one team, and the youngest to reach both the 1,300- and 1,400-game marks. He was seven games short of becoming the youngest player to play in 1,500 games with one team before signing with his second team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, in 2017. After two seasons with Toronto, he returned to San Jose in 2019,^[1] and was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins before the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs. After failing to win a Stanley Cup, Marleau returned to the Sharks as a free agent for the 2020–21 season, his final season. Marleau holds the distinction of playing the most NHL games (both regular season and playoffs) without winning the Stanley Cup, an active streak as of the end of the 2022–23 season. His number, 12, was retired by the Sharks on February 25, 2023.

Internationally, Marleau won gold medals with Canada at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics. Marleau, one of the most important players of the Sharks for nearly 20 seasons, was known as one of the fastest skaters in the NHL and exhibited a high standard of playing ability combined with gentlemanly conduct. This earned him two nominations for the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy and made him a popular player both among fans and his professional peers.