It has been a terrible start to the season for the San Jose Sharks and on Wednesday, the Sharks brought back a familiar face to try and change things around as they signed free agent Canadian Olympic gold medalist Patrick Marleau of Aneroid, Saskatchewan to a one year contract worth $700,000. In four games this season, the Sharks have lost all of them by a combined goal total of 17-5.
Marleau, who won a gold medal for Canada at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver and the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, played 19 seasons for the Sharks from 1997 to 2017. In 1493 regular season games with the Sharks, Marleau had 508 goals and 574 assists for 1082 points. He is the Sharks all-time leader in games played, goals, points, power play goals (160), shorthanded goals (17), game winning goals (98) and shots on goal (3798). In the playoffs, Marleau has played 177 games for the Sharks and has 68 goals and 52 assists for 120 points.
Over the last two seasons, Marleau has played for the Maple Leafs. In 2018-19 in 82 games, Marleau had 16 goals and 21 assists for 37 points. He was a -6 with 28 penalty minutes, 10 power play points, three game winning goals, 161 shots on goal, 104 faceoff wins, 41 blocked shots, 74 hits, 31 takeaways and 22 giveaways. It will now be interesting to see how much more Marleau has in the tank at age 40. There is no doubt the Sharks need a spark, and now they are going back to a former captain to help them salvage their season.
