San Jose Sharks to retire Patrick Marleau’s No. 12
The San Jose Sharks will retire Patrick Marleau’s No. 12 into the rafters at SAP Arena next season, the club announced Thursday.
Marleau, 42, played 1,607 of his National Hockey League record 1,779 career regular-season games in a Sharks uniform between 1997 and 2021.
The Aneroid, Saskatchewan product will become the first player to have his number retired by the Sharks. He’ll be in attendance at SAP Arena for an on-ice ceremony prior to the Sharks’ game against the Chicago Blackhawks on February 25, 2023.
An icon and a legend.
Join us February 25, 2023 as we put Patrick Marleau's No. 12 in the rafters.
ℹ️ → https://t.co/ToIHskJq6Q pic.twitter.com/We8X2MSygR
“It is only fitting that the first San Jose Sharks player to receive the ultimate franchise recognition of having his number retired is Mr. San Jose Shark himself, Patrick Marleau,” Sharks President Jonathan Becher said Thursday. “Patty symbolizes the Sharks franchise as much as our famous jersey crest and the color teal. We look forward to celebrating his amazing NHL legacy with Patrick’s family, friends and his legions of fans, many of whom were in the arena when Patrick first stepped on the ice in San Jose in 1997.”
The Sharks selected Marleau second overall in the 1997 NHL Draft, one pick after the Boston Bruins took Joe Thornton (who ended up spending most of his career with Marleau in San Jose).
Marleau spent the first 19 seasons of his NHL career with the Sharks, posting seven 30-goal campaigns and helping the team reach the 2016 Stanley Cup Final. He also won gold with Team Canada at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey and the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Marleau as an unrestricted free agent in 2017. He spent two seasons in Toronto before returning to San Jose in 2019; at the 2020 trade deadline, the Sharks traded Marleau to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
After a very brief stint in Pittsburgh, Marleau returned to the Sharks for one final season. In 2020–21, Marleau passed Gordie Howe by playing in his 1,768th NHL regular-season game. He subsequently became only the fourth player in NHL history to record 900 consecutive games played.
Over his three stints in San Jose, Marleau became the Sharks’ franchise record-holder in games played (1,607), goals (522), points (1,111), playoff goals (68), playoff points (120), power-play goals (163), shorthanded goals (17), and game-winning goals (101).
In his 1,779 career games with San Jose, Toronto, and Pittsburgh, Marleau scored 566 goals, 631 assists, and 1,197 points. He’s eligible to enter the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2024.
With Marleau becoming the first player to have his number retired by the Sharks, only the three newest NHL teams (the Seattle Kraken, Vegas Golden Knights, and Winnipeg Jets) have yet to retire a player’s number. The Kraken and Golden Knights have respectively retired Nos. 32 and 58 for off-ice reasons.