Thornton, Marleau linked forever in Sharks history

SAN JOSE -- Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton, together again, side by side.

The way they say it should be. The way it was for so many years in San Jose Sharks teal.

Marleau will be at SAP Center on Saturday when the No. 19 of his former teammate will be retired by the Sharks, just 21 months after his own No. 12 became the first one to receive that honor from the franchise.

It just feels right. For Thornton. For the Sharks. For the fans.

“Yeah, it's unbelievable,” Marleau said Friday prior to the Sharks' 2024 Legends Game. “It’s going to be great to be able to look up in the rafters and see a 12 and a 19 side by side.

“It's going to be really special.”

Not to mention emotional.

“I’m almost guaranteed there’ll be some waterworks,” he said.

With good reason.

Even before they became NHL teammates when Thornton was traded to the Sharks by the Boston Bruins in 2005, the two were already linked. Indeed they were teammates while teenagers representing Canada at a U-18 tournament in 1996 on a team coached by Pete DeBoer, who would coach them with the Sharks two decades later.

In 1997, they were the top two selections in the NHL Draft: Thornton picked No. 1 overall by the Bruins, Marleau going right after him to the Sharks.

Eight years later they were reunited in San Jose when Thornton was acquired by the Sharks from the Bruins for forwards Wayne Primeau, Marco Sturm and Brad Stuart. The rest is Sharks history.

“It just happened real quick,” Marleau said of the trade. “But as soon as you hear that a guy like that's coming to your team, you're super excited. And obviously, you know, he made our team Cup contenders.

“You know, when we're 18 getting drafted, you don't think something like that's going to happen, but when that trade happened and he came here, it was just unbelievable. And I'm so excited to have him here.

“I'm very honored to be able to look up there and see his number with mine.”

They didn’t manage to win a Stanley Cup in San Jose, the closest chance coming in 2016 when they lost the Final in six games to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Nevertheless, they still combined for a legacy that made them the faces of the Sharks franchise to this day.

Marleau concluded his playing career ranked first in the NHL in games played (1,779), 24th in goals scored (566), tied for seventh in game-winning goals (109), 53rd in points (1,197), and tied for 85th in assists (631). As a member of the Sharks, he ranks first in games played (1,607), goals (522), points (1,111), power-play goals (163), shorthanded goals (17), game-winning goals (101), multi-goal games (67) and shots (3,953). He also ranks second in assists (589), eighth in penalty minutes (481), and eighth in points-per-game (0.69) among those who played at least 200 games for San Jose.

Having played for the Sharks from 2005-20, Thornton ranks first in team history in assists (804), points per game (0.96), power-play points (402), and plus-minus (+161); second all-time in points (1,055), third in games played (1,104), and fourth in goals (251).

In the process, Marleau said his pal is the same Jumbo Joe he first met when they were 17.

“He hasn't changed from the first time I met him until now. I mean, he's just always had this smile on his face, always loved to play hockey and and just loves the boys being around. It's fun to see that.”

Thornton and Marleau were on the ice together again Friday for the Legends Game in front of thousands of fans at a sold-out Tech CU Arena. They were joined by familiar Sharks names of yesteryear like Joe Pavelski, Dan Boyle, Dany Heatley and Evgeni Nabokov.

The most special part of the evening, however, was at the start of warmups when Joe and his son River skated around the ice together, dad waving to the crowd as they cheered father and son.

The cheers have only started. Wait until Saturday for the main event.

And you can bet Patrick Marleau will be the biggest cheerleader of them all.