MARLEAU HOPS ABOARD THE LEAFS BANDWAGON
Former Sharks captain excited to join ‘fast and talented’ group of youngsters
Patrick Marleau took the kids to school on Tuesday. And no, it wasn’t a euphemism for showing Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and the other teenagers on the Maple Leafs the ropes.
While the veteran is expected to be the unofficial Father Figure for a young team on the rise, on this day he was just being dad to his two oldest kids as they started grade school in a new city in a new country.
It was an emotional day. Aside from when his wife shed tears at the sight of him in a Leafs jersey, it might have been the first time Marleau’s decision to leave San Jose after 19 good years felt real.
“They’re not letting on too much, but I feel for them,” Marleau, who spent Tuesday watching a group of Leafs practice informally at the team’s training facility, said of his sons.
“I know they left friends and family, but it’s a good chance to make new friends.”
For Marleau, coming to Toronto is more of the same. Leaving the Sharks, the team that drafted and made him captain, and where he met his wife and started his family, is a bit scary. And yet, there’s something exciting about this opportunity.
Next Friday is Marleau’s 38th birthday, so the winger’s best years are probably behind him. But the Leafs, who signed him to a three-year deal worth US$18.75 million, are betting that he still has plenty left in the tank.
They view Marleau as a top line option for Matthews, someone who will not only show the kids the ropes, but also provide a young team with the necessary experience to take that next step toward Stanley Cup contender.
On that end, it wasn’t surprising that the Leafs were interested in Marleau, who scored 27 goals last season and can still get around the ice with ease. What’s curious is that Marleau was interested in the Leafs.
In San Jose, he left a team that has made the playoffs in 12 of the last 13 seasons and reached the Cup final in 2015-16. There was stability and comfort there. But similar to Milan Lucic’s decision to sign with the Edmonton Oilers a year ago, Marleau saw what Toronto was building toward and couldn’t resist being a part of something from the ground up.
“I think being in the playoffs last year, you don’t really see it as a rebuilding team,” Marleau said.
“I think they’re a playoff team. They’re a team that’s up and coming. All those things we’re talking about, the skill and the speed, the structure that’s being implemented the last couple of years, will go a long way.
“I want to get out there and see it up close. Everything everybody has been saying about them, you can see it.
“They’re fast and talented … you just got a sense of how good they are and how much better they can get as well.”
It’s a sign of the times that Toronto can now attract an established free agent.
It wasn’t long ago that the Leafs were finishing at the bottom of the standings and were overpaying for middle-of-theroad talent. But, two years after all seven Canadian teams missed the playoffs, the landscape has changed, not only in Toronto but across the country. There’s hope in Toronto, where Matthews won the Calder Trophy and finished second in the league with 40 goals last season. There’s hope in Edmonton, where Connor McDavid won the scoring title and league MVP and also led the Oilers to within one game of reaching the Western conference final.
And there’s hope for the Habs, who signed free agent defenceman Karl Alzner.
And hope in Ottawa and Calgary and Winnipeg and Vancouver.
“There’s something to be said about growing up in Canada and watching Hockey Night In Canada,” said Marleau, who is from Swift Current, Sask. “From the very first time I put the jersey on, I couldn’t get that smile off my face, I don’t know why. But that probably had something to do with it. It’s just very exciting.”
Two years ago, when the Leafs’ cupboard was bare of prospects, Marleau probably wouldn’t have given Toronto a second thought.
But with Mike Babcock coaching — “It was one of the key factors obviously,” he said — and the team pointed in the right direction, the pull to return to Canada was just too strong.
As L.A. Kings defenceman Drew Doughty said earlier this summer, “I think all of us southern Ontario players, we secretly want to play for the Leafs.”
And now, there are incentives.