Career
Before playing in the NHL, Marleau played parts of two seasons with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western Hockey League (WHL). He had a successful time with the Thunderbirds. During the 1996-97, the Thunderbirds named Marleau as their new captain. He was named to both the WHL West First All-Star Team and the CHL Second All-Star Team in 1997.
He was drafted 2nd overall by the San Jose Sharks in the 1997 NHL entry draft. On October 1, 1997, Marleau made his NHL debut in a 5–3 loss against the Edmonton Oilers. On October 11, he recorded his first NHL point, assisting on a Viktor Kozlov goal in a 5–2 win against the Boston Bruins. On October 19, Marleau scored his first NHL goal against Nikolai Khabibulin in a 5–3 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes.
On September 21, 2000, Marleau signed a one-year contract to stay with the Sharks. On September 18, 2001, Marleau signed a one-year contract to stay with the Sharks. On July 1, 2002, the Sharks exercised their option on Marleau's contract and re-signed him. During the 2003–04 season, the Sharks named Marleau as their next captain. He finished the season by scoring 28 goals and recording 29 assists for 57 points and was named to his first All-Star game. On July 11, 2003, Marleau signed a two-year contract to stay with the Sharks. On August 15, 2005, Marleau signed a three-year, $12.5 contract to stay with the Sharks. During the 2006–07 season, he scored 32 goals and recorded 46 goals for 78 points in 77 regular season games. He was named to his second All-Star game.
On June 24, 2010, Marleau signed a four-year, $27.6 million contract to stay with the Sharks. On January 17, 2011, Marleau played his 1,000 NHL game in a 4–2 win against the Phoenix Coyotes. During the game, he scored a goal against Ilya Bryzgalov. On January 24, 2014, Marleau signed a three-year, $19.98 million contract to stay with the Sharks. On November 21, 2015, Marleau recorded his 1,000 NHL career point, assisting on a Brent Burns goal in a 3–1 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins. On January 23, 2017, Marleau scored four goals against the Colorado Avalanche. It was the first time that he had accomplished the feat in his career. During his time in San Jose, Marleau set Sharks all-time records for goals, even strength goals, power play goals, points, shots, and games played.
On July 2, 2017, Marleau signed a three-year, $6.25 million contract to join the Toronto Maple Leafs. Marleau set many different milestone in his NHL career during his time with the Maple Leafs. On October 18, Marleau played in his 1,500 NHL game, becoming only the 18th player in the history of the league to reach the 1,500 game mark. On March 15, 2018, Marleau scored his 1,122nd point and passed Darryl Sittler on the all-time list. On November 26, 2018, Marleau became the 11th player in NHL history to reach the 1,600 game mark.
On June 22, 2019, the Maple Leafs traded Marleau along with a 2020 conditional first-round draft pick and a 2020 seventh-round draft pick to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for 2020 sixth-round draft pick. He never played a game for the team. On June 27, the Hurricanes bought out the rest of his contract because they were unable to convince Marleau to play and he told the Hurricanes that he wanted to play on the west coast again.
On October 9, 2019, Marleau signed a one-year, $700,000 contract to return to the San Jose Sharks. On October 25, Marleau reached the 1,500 game mark and he also became the seventh player in the history of the league to reach the milestone with a single franchise. On January 11, 2020, Marleau became the fifth player in league history to reach the 1,700 game milestone and he was also the youngest to be able to reach it.
On February 24, 2020, the Sharks traded Marleau to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for a 2021 conditional third-round draft pick. He only played 8 regular season games with the Penguins, scoring 1 goal and recording 1 assist.
On October 13, 2020, Marleau signed a one-year contract return to the San Jose Sharks for a third time. On April 19, 2021, Marleau played in his 1,768th career NHL game. This broke passed Gordie Howe and broke the NHL's all-time regular season games played record. On April 21, Marleau recorded his 900th consecutive game played and became only the fourth player in league history to reach the milestone.
On May 10, 2022, Marleau announced that he was retiring from playing professional ice hockey. On February 25, 2023, the Sharks retired Marleau's jersey number #12 and raised his number to the rafters. He became the first player to have their number retired in Sharks franchise history.
Canada