Jonathan Marchessault

#81

C

Player Headshot
Height: 5′9″
Weight: 185 lb
Born: 12/27/1990 (Age: 34)
Birthplace: Cap-Rouge, Quebec, CAN
Shoots: R
Draft: Undrafted
2024-25 Season
GP
G
A
P
+/-
41141630-9
Career
GP
G
A
P
+/-
679244273517+26

Last 5 Games

DateOpp
Jan 7, 25@ WPG011-200052423:35
Jan 4, 25@ CGY011-170041914:40
Jan 3, 25@ VAN011+120002518:46
Dec 31, 24@ MIN101000042222:24
Dec 30, 24@ WPG000-100011915:08

Stats

Career Stats

2012-13Columbus Blue Jackets2000-10000010:570000.00.0
2014-15Tampa Bay Lightning2101+10000011:5700333.333.3
2015-16Tampa Bay Lightning4571118-1017470012:0510818.648.1
2016-17Florida Panthers75302151-21388180016:556119315.545.2
2017-18Vegas Golden Knights77274875+36406160017:306226810.143.5
2018-19Vegas Golden Knights82253459+2525160018:09612789.037.3
2019-20Vegas Golden Knights66222547+6286120017:17312359.442.7
2020-21Vegas Golden Knights55182644+1939360017:254217610.246.6
2021-22Vegas Golden Knights76303666+3365200017:344025112.043.0
2022-23Vegas Golden Knights76282957+2219160017:084123412.037.5
2023-24Vegas Golden Knights82422769-2408170017:545226615.825.0
2024-25Nashville Predators41141630-9313120018:092112111.624.4
Career679244273517+26342571400017:094111210611.642.2

Awards

Stanley Cup
SeasonGP
2022-2322
Conn Smythe Trophy
SeasonGP
2022-2322

Bio

Jonathan Marchessault

Marchessault is a big reason the Vegas Golden Knights became the best first-year franchise in NHL history.

The Golden Knights selected the native of Cap-Rouge, Quebec, from the Florida Panthers in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft after he scored 30 goals in 2016-17. Marchessault quickly showed that was no fluke, finding a home on the first line with William Karlsson and Reilly Smith. He finished with an NHL career-best 75 points, second to Karlsson, and was rewarded with a five-year, $30 million contract on Jan. 3, 2018.

Marchessault showed his first-season heroics with the Golden Knights were no fluke, scoring 25 and 22 goals in his next two seasons.

It's been quite a jump for a player who took a long path to the NHL.

Marchessault credits tough love for helping him develop the mental fortitude necessary to make it in the NHL. The tough love did not come from his parents, but his coach in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Hall of Fame goalie Patrick Roy.

He says Roy, who coached him with Quebec, often motivated him through the media and that the public demands for better play not only made him work harder, but helped him develop the resolve he'd need to work his way to the League after going undrafted out of the junior ranks.

That climb began when Marchessault signed as a free agent with Connecticut of the American Hockey League for the start of the 2011-12 season. He immediately made the move look good by scoring the winning shootout goal in his second professional game. Marchessault scored his first regulation goal as a pro a little more than a week later and went on to finish his first pro season tied for the team lead with 64 points, leading the team in assists with 40.

That performance earned Marchessault a three-year entry-level contract in 2012 from the Columbus Blue Jackets, who brought him to the NHL for two games midway through the 2012-13 season but traded him to the Tampa Bay Lightning a year later.

Marchessault's first real chance to prove himself at the NHL level came with the Lightning during the 2015-16 season. He played in 45 regular-season games, then appeared in five Stanley Cup Playoff games as a replacement for the injured Ryan Callahan.

Versatile enough to play on a scoring line or a checking line, Marchessault signed a two-year contract with the Panthers in July 2016. He rewarded the Panthers by scoring 30 goals and finishing with 51 points, but was left unprotected in the expansion draft -- much to the delight of the Golden Knights.

Marchessault became the first to get 300 points with the Golden Knights when he had a goal and an assist in a 6-4 victory against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Nov. 5, 2022. He scored the first natural hat trick by a Golden Knights player in the playoffs, a 5-2 victory against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the 2023 Western Conference Second Round that helped them advance to the Western Conference Final. He became the ninth skater in NHL history with a three-goal period in a potential series-clinching game and first Vegas skater with a hat trick in such a game (Mattias Janmark, Game 7 of 2021 Stanley Cup First Round).

Marchessault completed the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs with a Golden Knights-record 10-game point streak to claim the Conn Smythe Trophy voted as the most valuable player of the postseason. He was the first undrafted player since Wayne Gretzky in 1988 to win the award after helping Vegas win the Cup with 13 goals that tied Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers for the playoff lead and finishing second with 25 points.

Marchessault had a goal in a 4-3 shootout loss at the Ottawa Senators on Feb. 24, 2024, to become the first player in Golden Knights history to score at least 30 goals twice. His goal 3:30 into overtime of a 2-1 win against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center on March 30, 2024, made him the second Vegas skater to reach 40 goals in one season, joining William Karlsson in 2017-18.

Marchessault left the Golden Knights to sign a five-year, $27.5 million contract with the Nashville Predators on July 1, 2024. 

NOTES & TRANSACTIONS

  • QMJHL First All-Star Team (2011)
  • AHL First All-Star Team (2013)
  • Played in NHL All-Star Game (2022)
  • Signed as a free agent by Columbus, July 1, 2012.
  • Traded to Tampa Bay by Columbus with Dalton Smith for Matt Taormina and Dana Tyrell, March 5, 2014.
  • Signed as a free agent by Florida, July 1, 2016.
  • Claimed by Vegas from Florida in Expansion Draft, June 21, 2017.
  • Signed as a free agent by Nashville, July 1, 2024.