Patrick Marleau is now a Maple Leaf

Patrick Marleau, a left-shooting left winger, is 37. That’s the big knock against him, so let’s deal with it. He’ll be 38 before the season starts. Unlike anyone else on the team he was born in the seventies, and he is definitely in decline.

But unlike most players in the NHL, his declining years include 50 or so points per season and a positive relative Corsi while playing top nine minutes. He leaves the San Jose Sharks with a record of exemplary play and a lot of points. Over 1000 points, in fact and 500 goals. He has been there and done that, which is the upside to signing a guy his age.

This is where he shoots from:

Which is exactly how the Leafs play: In tight, or don’t bother.

He has played with the best of the best in San Jose, so he’s always on the ice with quality teammates, but he’s faced very average competition. He’s not been sheltered or used hard. Brent Burns plays a lot of minutes, so Marleau played with him a lot.

Marleau had very good shot differential results last year except, curiously, when he played with Marc-Edouard Vlasic, who is an excellent defensive defenceman. If that means that Marleau is really suited to playing with offensively focused players, well, the Leafs have a lot of those. He definitely gets his good percentages from the offensive side of the ledger. He is only just okay at shots against.

Marleau played some with Mikkel Boedker this past season, and he is nothing but speed and rush chances. They had high event success together, another good sign he might fit with the young, fast, go for broke Leafs.

The point of signing a man his age, who still has it but might lose it at any moment, seems to be to provide a temp fill-in for the potentially departing James van Riemsdyk. If van Riemsdyk stays, then the worst that’s happened is that a major upgrade over Zach Hyman has occurred for a few years.

Of course the decider is always term and price. For the right deal, almost any NHL player is a good get. Is this deal the right one?

That’s Lupul+ money, isn’t it? And it’s one year longer than I’d want to see. It makes me nervous, and I was so cool over the Zaitsev deal, I still have hypothermia.

It means the Leafs have three years to move van Riemsdyk for something tasty and to find a young, hot left wing to score goals.

And I’m still nervous.

Oh, and don’t let the French name fool you, Marleau is from Saskatchewan, so finally Mike Babcock has someone other than just Tyler Bozak who speaks his language. As many rumours have said, Babcock pushed hard for this deal to happen. I guess he’ll wear the egg on his face if it all blows up.