Left wing Patrick Marleau signed a three-year, $18.75 million contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs. His contract comes with a $6.25 million average annual cap hit and he will stay with the team until 2020. Marleau has so far spent his entire 19-year NHL career with the San Jose Sharks.
The #Leafs announced today the signing of F Patrick Marleau to a 3-year contract. The annual average value of the contract is $6.25 million.
— Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) July 2, 2017
Patrick Marleau Signs with the Toronto Maple Leafs
Marleau is headed into his 20th NHL season having played every previous game with the Sharks after being drafted by them 2nd overall in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft after 12-year teammate, Joe Thornton. He will turn 38 years old on September 15th. Marleau is currently on a 624-game streak, not having missed a game since his streak started on April 9th, 2009. Marleau is currently in 4th place in games played among active players. If he plays at least 70 games next season and depending on the futures of Jarome Iginla and Shane Doan, Marleau will sit right outside the top 10 all-time with time to climb even further.
Marleau has been steadily slowing down the last three years. After a low, relative to his standards, 19 goals two years ago, Marleau produced 25 and 27 goals in the previous two seasons. He also continues to be productive at even strength as 20 of his 27 goals last season were scored 5v5, something that should be valuable to his team in the coming season. With a bit more luck on the powerplay an eight 30-goal season could be a possibility for the winger. Despite his age he continues to be one of the faster skaters in the league, although he also seemed to take a slight step down in this deparment this season. With decent linemates he should still be able to hit somewhere around 25-30 goals.
Marleau is coming off a three-year deal signed back in January 2014 that earned him $20 million. He is the Sharks all-time leader in almost every offensive category and can likely expect his jersey to be retired by the team when he one day hangs up his skates.
Main Photo:
