(Photo by the Pittsburgh Penguins)

It’s one of the most interesting pieces of hockey trivia to ever exist. 

Patrick Marleau played 1,779 games in the National Hockey League, the most by any player in the league’s over century long history. 

Of those 1,779 games, Marleau mainly appeared for two teams: the San Jose Sharks and the Toronto Maple Leafs. A second overall pick by the Sharks in 1997, Marleau played 1,607 games for San Jose, and another 164 for the Toronto Maple Leafs. 

But for 8 games of his NHL career, he wore the uniform of a third team: the Pittsburgh Penguins. 

It’s one of the shortest tenures for a player in Penguins history, although outside circumstances made it a lot shorter than expected. 

So let’s take a look back on the 8 games (and 4 “playoff” games) Marleau played in the black and yellow. 

After the 2018-19 season, the Maple Leafs were in some serious salary cap trouble. Then general manager Kyle Dubas (now of the Penguins) had to get creative to clear out salary and give Toronto some much needed breathing room. He found that in the form of a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes. 

The Hurricanes were willing to take on Marleau’s $6.25 million dollar cap hit, which they planned to buy out, but it was going to cost Toronto a pretty penny. The Hurricanes acquired a 2020 first round pick (which ended up being Seth Jarvis) to take on Marleau’s contract. 

After being bought out, Marleau spent the summer without a team, before finding a deal in October for league minimum in his old home of San Jose. 

The Sharks ended up having a very rough year, and as the deadline creeped closer, the Sharks explored shipping off veteran players. 

Both Marleau and fellow longtime teammate Joe Thornton had expressed a desire to be traded for a better shot at a Stanley Cup as they played out the final few seasons of their career. In the end, Marleau would get his wish, but Thornton would not. 

On February 24, 2020, the Sharks traded Marleau to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Sharks would receive a conditional third round pick in return (if the Penguins had won the Stanley Cup, the pick would have been a second rounder instead). 

Marleau was one of four reinforcements the Penguins added in the weeks leading up to the deadline, including Jason Zucker, Evan Rodrigues, and the return of Conor Sheary. 

Marleau, 40 years old at the time, was joining the team he grew up cheering for in the hopes of chasing Lord Stanley, the one thing that eluded him during his career. It would have been a storybook ending had it all worked out. 

Marleau’s first game for the Penguins came in Los Angeles against the Kings. The Penguins were on a three game losing streak, and a west coast swing that always proves difficult suddenly was a lot more important. 

He played 14:29 in his Penguins debut, a tough 2-1 loss. 

His second game was essentially a mirror image, 14:44 in a 3-2 loss. Marleau was still looking for his first point with his new team. 

To finish out the California trip, the Penguins were in town to take on the Sharks. An emotional homecoming and outpouring of support for Marleau was about the only good thing that happened for any Penguin player that night. Pittsburgh was blown out 5-0 by San Jose, and the losing streak was pushed to six straight games. 

Finally coming back home, the Penguins would be able to end the major skid. During a 7-3 beatdown of the Ottawa Senators, Marleau would tally his first point as a Penguin, assisting on a Bryan Rust goal. 

The Penguins would follow that up with another win, in Buffalo against the Sabres, 4-2, before returning home for a two game home stand. The Penguins were hoping to build momentum from back to back wins as the season rolled into its final handful of games. 

Unfortunately for them, what happened would be the exact opposite. The Penguins lost 5-2 against Washington and 6-2 against Carolina during the weekend homestand. 

Marleau did score his first (and only) goal as a Penguin however, in the Carolina game. He was looking more and more comfortable in the lineup, and was more visible on the ice. 

The Penguins would end up having just one more game remaining in their season, which would be a 5-2 win against the New Jersey Devils. 

Just a few days later, the NHL would pause the season due to Covid, and no one knew what was coming next. 

And that was it. Patrick Marleau’s regular season with the Penguins was abruptly over. 

The pause would be lifted in the summer, when the NHL was able to resume play. The league decided to scrap the remainder of the regular season and create the 24-team tournament to settle the issue of playoff sets. 

The Penguins, being 5th in the Eastern Conference when the standings paused, had just missed being able to play in the round-robin for the first four teams in each conference that season. Instead, they were to play the 12-seed (and 24-ranked overall) Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers. 

Pittsburgh would ultimately lose in the Qualifiers to Montreal, who shocked the hockey world when they took out the Penguins 3 games to 1. 

Marleau appeared in all four Qualifiers games for the Penguins, but failed to register a point. He averaged just 10:42 of ice time, which was second lowest on the team in the Qualifiers. 

After the season, Marleau’s contract had expired, and the Penguins opted not to bring him back. Just like he did last time he found himself a free agent, he reunited with the Sharks, where he spent one more season before retiring. 

Unfortunately for Marleau, he never did get to hoist the Stanley Cup. Ironically, the closest he ever got was when San Jose lost in the Stanley Cup Finals to none other than the Pittsburgh Penguins. 

But he did achieve an incredibly impressive feat. On April 19, 2021, Marleau set the NHL record for most games played, and it was most fitting that he accomplished that as a member of the Sharks. 
Just over a calendar year later, after not playing the 2021-22 season, Marleau announced his retirement.