Marleau retires after 23-year career
SAN JOSE, CALIF. » For 23 seasons, Patrick Marleau woke up each day preparing to play hockey and that helped him eventually break Gordie Howe’s record for most games played in the NHL.
After a difficult year away from the game hoping another team would call and offer him a chance, Marleau announced his retirement Tuesday, ending a career that featured a record 1,779 games, 566 goals, two Olympic gold medals and nearly every significant San Jose Sharks record.
“It’s been hard,” Marleau said about his first season away from the game he started playing as a 3-yearold San Jose’s Patrick in Saskatchewan. Marleau, right, “I’ve played wipes away tears
this game that as he was honored
much all my life for his 1,768 NHL
and I love it. I’m games played,
getting a whole before a game last
new respect for my month in San Jose
wife and my family With Marleau are his
and all the things wife, Christina, and
that they had to go children.
through when I was gone, just the day to day. But that’s my new challenge, and that’s what I’m looking forward to doing now. I can’t wait to become the best father and husband I can be.”
Marleau said he kept in shape in case a team called but nothing materialized and he realized a few weeks ago that he was ready to announce his retirement. He capped his retirement announcement the same way he did in a letter posted on the Players’ Tribune, saying simply: “Thank you, hockey.”
Marleau broke Howe’s all-time games played record late last season, the capper to a remarkable career that started as the No. 2 overall pick in the 1997 draft. Marleau retires ranked 23rd all-time with 566 goals and 50th with 1,197 points for San Jose, Toronto and Pittsburgh.
He also holds the Sharks records for games played (1,607), goals (522) and points (1,111) as he helped make the team into a perennial contender and a fixture in the South Bay.
“You can’t describe what Patrick means to the San Jose Sharks as an organization, to San Jose as a hockey community,” Sharks President Jonathan Becher said.