Marleau left out of Hall of Fame’s 2024 class, but another ex-Shark makes cut

SAN JOSE – Former San Jose Sharks forward Patrick Marleau was not elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame on Tuesday in his first year of eligibility.

Former NHL players Pavel Datsyuk, Shea Weber, and ex-Sharks forward Jeremy Roenick were elected to the Hall, as were female players Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell-Pohl. Colin Campbell and David Poile were elected in the Builders Category.

Roenick played with the Sharks from 2007 to 2009 to finish his 20-year NHL career. He scored 46 points in 111 regular-season games in San Jose and six points in 18 playoff games.

Roenick’s most memorable game for the Sharks came on April 22, 2008, when he had two goals and two assists in San Jose’s 5-3 win over the Calgary Flames in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series.

Roenick, a Boston native eligible for election since 2012, scored 513 goals and had 1,216 points in 1,363 regular-season games. His point total is the most for any U.S.-born player.

“I’m so happy, I can’t thank everyone who was behind this honor enough,” Roenick said in a statement. “I’m at a loss for words, and I’m never at a loss for words. Getting over this last hockey hurdle means so much to me.”

With his last game coming in 2021, this was the first year Marleau, 44, was eligible for consideration.

Marleau played an NHL record 1,779 games over a 23-year NHL career that began in 1997 when he was the Sharks’ second-overall draft pick. He played 21 seasons in San Jose, two with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and a brief stint with the Pittsburgh Penguins at the end of the pandemic-affected 2019-2020 season.

Marleau passed Gordie Howe for the games played record during the 2020-2021 season. He also ranks 24th all-time in regular season goals, scoring 566, and is 53rd with 1,197 points.

Marleau did not win the Stanley Cup or a major individual award as a player but did capture two Olympic gold medals with Canada in 2010 and 2014.

Every retired player who scored more NHL regular-season goals than Marleau is already in the Hall, and now, all but two players who have more points than Marleau – Bernie Nicholls (1,209) and Vincent Damphousse (1,205) – have also been inducted. Nicholls and Damphousse are former Sharks.

Joe Thornton, who spent 15 seasons with the Sharks, had 1,539 points in his 24-year NHL career but is not eligible for election until next year.

An 18-member committee of executives, media members, former players, and coaches considered potential inductees under a formal selection process.

Committee members can nominate no more than one individual in the Player Category, the Builder Category, and the Referee or Linesman Category. Nominees needed to be submitted by April 15.

From that pool of nominees, the committee can select a maximum of four male players, two female players, two builders, or one builder and one referee or linesman. All nominated candidates needed to receive at least 14 votes (75%) to be elected.

Marleau would have been the first player who spent most of his career with the Sharks to be elected to the Hall. Former Sharks who had already been inducted before Tuesday were Ed Belfour, Rob Blake, Igor Larionov, Sergei Makarov, Teemu Selanne, Mike Vernon, and Doug Wilson.

This year’s seven-member class is the first to include two women’s players since 2010, and the first with two U.S. women’s players in Darwitz and Wendell-Pohl.

Datsyuk, a two-time Stanley Cup-winning winger and Weber, a three-time Norris Trophy finalist, were elected in their first year of eligibility. Campbell and Poile are longtime NHL executives.