National Post (National Edition)
Return to Sharks ‘a little weird’
The colour suits him. It always did. Patrick Marleau is wearing teal again for the San Jose Sharks. He’s sitting next to Joe Thornton in the dressing room and once again playing on a line with Logan Couture. He is back with the team that drafted him, the one where he spent the first 19 seasons of his career.
In some ways, it’s as though he never left. And yet, a part of Marleau thought he’d never return.
“It’s a little weird,” he said on Tuesday.
It’s weird because this part of the story was never in the script. When Marleau left San Jose as a free agent in 2017 and signed a threeyear deal with the Maple Leafs, the thought was that it might be the final contract of his career. At the very least, he expected that he wouldn’t have to make a decision on his playing career until sometime in 2020.
All that changed last summer, which Marleau called a “roller-coaster ride” of emotions and fears that he might have played his final NHL game.
With Mitch Marner needing a new contract — and Auston Matthews’ five-year, US$58.17-million contract about to kick in — the Leafs were under pressure to create cap space. Marleau, who was on the final year of a deal that paid him $6.25-million, became the casualty.
He was first traded to Carolina on June 22 in what was essentially a salary dump. Five days later, he was bought out, with no guarantee that a Hall of Fameworthy forward with 1,169 career points would get another chance to play hockey again.
Not that he’s harbouring hurt feelings with how things ended up in Toronto — even if it was somewhat ironic that Marner was the one who ultimately pushed him out.
“No better person to do it for,” he said of Marner, who along with Matthews became close friends of Marleau and his children. “That makes it easy. Those guys are great players and deserve everything they get.”
Anyone who has spent time with Marleau will not be surprised to hear him speak this way. He oozes class. Criticize him all you want for his lack of production during his two years in Toronto — he combined to score 43 goals and 84 points in 164 games — but he was always valued more for his leadership, selflessness and professionalism than what he did on the scoresheet.
Marleau became a father figure for a young team looking to take that next step. In particular, he played a mentorship role for Matthews and Marner. At home, Matthews and Marner became surrogate uncles to Marleau’s kids.
It was everything the Leafs had wanted, with one exception: Marleau’s off-ice contributions started to outweigh what he was producing on the ice.
Marleau had 27 goals and 47 points in his first season in Toronto. But last year, at the age of 40, he managed only 16 goals and 37 points and was practically invisible during a first-round loss to the Boston Bruins.
For this reason, it wasn’t surprising the Leafs moved on from Marleau or that the Hurricanes declined to keep him. Nor was it surprising that he missed training camp and the first week of the season while waiting for an offer that didn’t seem like it was going to come.
“It was a grind,” Marleau said of his off-season. “I think obviously there’s the business side of things for what happened in Toronto. You see it almost every year where teams are trying to get everyone they want under the cap system.”
It wasn’t until San Jose stumbled out of the gates with four straight losses that the Sharks brought him back on a one-year deal at the league minimum. Marleau scored twice in his debut, a 5-4 win against Chicago and — heading into Tuesday night’s game against Buffalo — has helped San Jose improve to 3-5-0.
“He’s just been a stabilizer for us,” said Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer. “We were stumbling around after four games and he stabilized our line there with Logan Couture, gave Couture the comfort of a guy who has a veteran presence. He can still skate, he plays the right way.”
It’s not just the younger guys who are happy to see Marleau around.
“It puts a smile on my face,” Thornton said of being reunited with his teammate of 12 years. “Once he went to Toronto, I thought, who knows if we’re going to cross paths again to play with each other. I knew we’d always stay in touch but to play together, I didn’t think that would happen again. I’m happy it’s happening.” Marleau is also happy. Sure, he had initially hoped to win a Cup with the Leafs, so there’s some disappointment in not being able to help them achieve that goal. But he has even more unfinished business in San Jose.
“I’m glad the way things worked out here,” he said. “These guys went deep into the playoffs last year, so they know what it takes. They’re veteran guys. Sometimes you go through those hardships to get better. That’s what they’ve done here. They still want that ultimate goal.”
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