Marleau Sets All-Time Record for Most NHL Regular Season Games Played

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Tonight in Las Vegas, NV, San Jose Sharks (

In a remarkable, 23-year NHL career, Marleau finds himself in the upper echelon on several of the NHL's other all-time lists, including 23rd in goals (566); T-7th in game-winning goals (109); 50th in points (1,196); and 80th in assists (630).
He is the Sharks franchise leader in most offensive categories, including games played (1,596), goals (522), points (1,110), power-play goals (163), shorthanded goals (17), game-winning goals (101) and shots (3,941). He also ranks second in assists (588), eighth in penalty minutes (481), and T-7th in points-per-game (0.70 - min. 200 games). He has scored a game-winning goal against every current NHL team (including the Sharks), except for the Vegas Golden Knights in his career.
Of the 361 players to ever don a Sharks uniform for at least one game, Marleau has played alongside 255 of them (71%). He currently sits four games shy of 1,600 career regular season games with the Sharks.
You can find more interesting stats and notes about Marleau
here
, courtesy of the NHL.
Marleau's ascent on the all-time games played list began on Oct. 1, 1997, when the second overall selection in the 1997 NHL Draft made his NHL debut for the San Jose Sharks against the Edmonton Oilers. At 18 years, six days old, Marleau became the youngest player to make his NHL debut since 1945.
That season, Marleau finished tied for eighth among rookies in games played while also ranking in the top-10 in several offensive categories including points (32, fourth), goals (13, fifth), assists (seventh) and power-play points (7, ninth). He appeared in 74 games his rookie season and, over the next 22 years, that would be the fewest number of games he would play in a full 82-game season.
On April 9, 2009, Marleau started his current consecutive games played streak (899 consecutive games played), which is the fourth-longest ironman streak in NHL history, and the second-longest active streak in the NHL. In a full 82-game schedule, Marleau has averaged 80.45 games played each season, having missed only 31 of his team's games in his career (98.1%). In comparison to the other major professional sports, Marleau's percentage of games played ranks fifth.

IRONMEN

| PLAYER | LEAGUE | SEASONS | *GAMES PLAYED | PCT. OF TEAM GP | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A.C. Green | NBA | 1985-2001 | 1278 | 99.8% | | Elvin Hayes | NBA | 1968-1984 | 1303 | 99.3% | | Andrew Cogliano | NHL | 2007-active | 1052 | 98.6% | | John Stockton | NBA | 1984-2003 | 1504 | 98.6% | | Patrick Marleau | NHL | 1997-active | 1768 | 98.1% |
On Oct. 25, 2019 against Toronto, Marleau became the seventh player in NHL history to appear in at least 1,500 games with one franchise. On Dec. 12, 2019 vs. the New York Rangers, Marleau and Joe Thornton became the first pair of teammates to have appeared in 1,600 regular season games and play in the same game together.
Including Stanley Cup Playoff games, Marleau has amassed 1,963 career games (195 playoff games) which is second to only Mark Messier's 1,992 total games. Marleau is also just one of 13 NHL players to skate in at least 23 seasons, and is one of 14 players in NHL history to play in four separate decades (1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s).
His 195 Stanley Cup Playoff games is tied for 22nd in NHL history, and his appearance in the playoffs in 20 different seasons is tied for the third most. In the postseason, Marleau has recorded 127 points (72 goals, 55 assists) and ranks tied for 14th all-time in playoff goals and tied for 48th in playoff points.
Internationally, Marleau played for the gold-medal winning Team Canada in the 2010 and 2014 Olympics, represented Canada in the 2014 World Cup of Hockey (gold medal), and has appeared in four World Championships (1999, 2001, 2003, 2005).
The six-foot-two, 215-pound native of Aneroid, Saskatchewan was originally selected by San Jose in the 1997 NHL Draft (first round, second overall).

MARLEAU'S LANDMARK GAMES

| Game #1 Oct. 1, 1997 San Jose vs. Edmonton | | --- | | Game #100 Dec. 10, 1998 San Jose at Nashville | | Game #200 Jan. 8, 2000 San Jose vs. Florida | | Game #300 March 1, 2001 San Jose at Ottawa | | Game #400 Oct. 19, 2002 San Jose vs. Colorado | | Game #500 Nov. 26, 2003 San Jose vs. Chicago | | Game #600 Jan. 14, 2006 San Jose at Montreal | | Game #700 Feb., 24, 2007 San Jose at Calgary | | Game #800 Oct. 17, 2008 San Jose at Anaheim | | Game #900 Dec. 1, 2009 San Jose vs. Ottawa | | Game #999 Jan. 15, 2011 San Jose vs. St. Louis | | Game #1,000 Jan. 17, 2011 San Jose at Phoenix | | Game #1,100 Mar. 6, 2012 San Jose vs. Edmonton | | Game #1,200 Dec. 19, 2013 San Jose at Los Angeles | | Game #1,300 Feb. 5, 2015 San Jose at Vancouver | | Game #1,400 Mar. 19, 2016 San Jose vs. New York Rangers | | Game #1,500 Oct. 18, 2017 San Jose vs. Detroit | | Game #1,600 Nov. 26, 2018 San Jose vs. Boston | | Game #1,700 Jan. 11, 2020 San Jose vs. Dallas | | Game #1,767 Apr. 17, 2021 San Jose at Minnesota | | Game #1,768 Apr. 19, 2021 San Jose at Vegas | | |