The Kent-based Seattle Thunderbirds junior hockey team will retire the number 12 formerly worn by Patrick Marleau.
Marleau, 43, will be honored Nov. 3 when Seattle plays the Spokane Chiefs at the accesso ShoWare Center in Kent, according to the Western Hockey League Network.
Marleau, who is from Aneroid, Saskatchewan, is the NHL’s all-time leader in games played. He appeared in 1,779 regular season games with the San Jose Sharks, Toronto Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins.
Before his NHL career, Marleau skated for two seasons with the Thunderbirds, scoring 83 goals and 199 points over the 1995-96 and 1996-97 regular seasons, helping Seattle reach the 1997 WHL Championship Series in the process by finishing third in league scoring in 1996-97 with 125 points (51 goals, 74 assists).
Marleau was named to the WHL West Division First All-Star Team in 1997 and that summer, was the second-overall selection by San Jose in the 1997 NHL Draft. He began playing for the Sharks at age 18. He retired after the 2020-21 season, ending a 23-year career in the NHL.
The majority of Marleau’s NHL career was spent in San Jose. He is the franchise leader in most major offensive categories including goals, power-play goals and points, according to the WHL Network.
Marleau enjoyed seven NHL seasons with 30 or more goals, including a career-high 44 during the 2009-10 campaign.
He also became only the fourth player in NHL history to skate in 900 consecutive regular season games without missing an appearance, according to the WHL Network.
A three-time NHL All-Star (2004, 2007, 2009), Marleau was a finalist for the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy on two occasions (2006, 2014) and a finalist for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy in 2021.
His number 12 was retired by the Sharks in February of this year.
Internationally, Marleau is a quadruple gold-medalist with Canada, winning gold medals at two Winter Olympic Games (2010, 2014), the 2003 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship and the 2004 World Cup of Hockey.
During the WHL’s 50th anniversary season of 2015-16, Marleau was named one of the Top 50 WHL Players of All-Time.
Marleau becomes the second player in Seattle Thunderbirds franchise history to have his number retired, joining Glen Goodall, whose number 10 was retired in 1990 and hangs from the ShoWare Center rafters, soon to be joined by Marleau’s number 12.
The Thunderbirds moved to Kent in 2009 from the KeyArena in Seattle.
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