Reports have emerged from various sources in recent days that San Jose Sharks mainstay Patrick Marleau could be destined for a new NHL zip code at some point this season. Marleau, an 18-year NHL veteran, has spent his entire career with the Sharks after being selected by the franchse in the first-round of the 1997 NHL draft. His game has seemingly begun to show his age - though it remains highly effective, as his 19 goals and 57 points in 82 regular season games in 2014-15 can attest - and there comes a tipping point in every great player's career where they suddenly mean more to the organization to which they've given so much and fought so hard as trade fodder, than as an on-ice contributor.
But for the now 36-year-old Marleau, is there really any truth to the suggestion that Sharks GM Doug Wilson would send the fan favorite elsewhere?
"No. I mean there's - look, I believe that Doug Wilson, if given a choice, would consider moving any number of those kind of veteran pieces, if you will," TSN's Darren Dreger said Tuesday, while appearing on an episode of Montreal's TSN 690, via Today's Slap Shot. "And the two that always leap to the forefront are Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton. Both are armed heavily with contract protection. Until Patrick Marleau decides that he wants to go somewhere, this is just fodder for discussion and rumor-mongering. That's what it is."
As Dreger went on to note, there would, of course, be ample interest in Marleau - as well as Thornton - were Wilson to make them available and the players themselves to indicate their willingness to waive their respective no-trade clauses.
But why would a player like Marleau, who is said to have recently built a "beautiful" new home in the San Jose area, and who has ingrained himself so deeply into the community, want to uproot himself? Could he be so committed to the Sharks cause as to be willing to disrupt his own life and the lives of his family in order to allow Wilson to recoup the necessary picks and/or players that would come back in a trade for his, still ample, services and presumably aid San Jose in their quest for a playoff berth and Stanley Cup championship?
Not likely.
So, while reports and rumors will likely continue to swirl this season that something may or may not be "bubbling under the surface" on the Marleau trade front - especially considering he's in the penultimate year of his deal - unless and until he decides he's willing to move to another hockey home, it really is all just talk.
