It was somewhat surprising when Patrick Marleau signed a new one-year, $700K contract with the San Jose Sharks last October — not because he had lost any love for the franchise that he spent two decades leading, but because the Sharks didn’t appear to be in a position to give him a chance at what he's still searching for: the Stanley Cup.
Marleau has gone chasing a ring before, signing a three-year deal with the upstart Toronto Maple Leafs in 2017 and then embracing a trade to the Pittsburgh Penguins at last year’s trade deadline. Returning to San Jose, which went 29-36-5 in 2019-20 and brought back largely the same roster, seemed like he was giving up any chance at the Cup this season and instead focusing on breaking the all-time games played record with the franchise he knows best. Marleau now sits just 15 games behind Gordie Howe’s 1,767 regular-season contests, a record that for a long time seemed unbreakable.
Now, speaking with Kevin Kurz of The Athletic, Marleau explained that he would “seriously consider” another move to a contender if one were to approach the Sharks about him, noting that winning a Stanley Cup is still the goal. The 41-year-old doesn’t actually have any trade protection in his contract but would likely be part of the conversation with San Jose management about a deadline deal given his legacy status with the team.
Of course, Marleau’s play has drastically declined, to the point where acquiring him may not necessarily be a good idea for a contender. He has just one goal and five points in 29 games this season, and though part of that is the struggling Sharks roster, part of it is a 41-year-old player trying to keep up. In four postseason games with the Penguins last season he failed to record a point, meaning that third-round pick Pittsburgh used to get him didn’t have much return on investment. It's hard to imagine a lot of clubs racing to do the same thing, especially given the added quarantine protocols and cap issues that are plaguing the NHL trade market.
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