Patrick Marleau Becomes Youngest Player to Reach 1,300 Career Games

With his appearance in Thursday's 5-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks, San Jose Sharks center Patrick Marleau became the youngest player in NHL history to reach 1,300 career regular-season games, per Sportsnet Stats.

At 35 years, 143 days, Marleau broke the record held by defenseman Scott Stevens, who eventually played 1,635 games in a Hall of Fame career.

The 56th player to reach 1,300 games, Marleau is just the 11th to play that many contests for one franchise, per Juha Hiitela of Urheilusanomat.

Of the 55 players ahead of Marleau on the NHL's all-time games played list, 28 are enshrined in the Hall of Fame, and three are still active. Jaromir Jagr (1,520) is the active leader, followed by Shane Doan (1,365) and Jarome Iginla (1,362).

In order to set the somewhat obscure record, Marleau needed a couple of factors working in his favor.

For starters, he made his NHL debut in 1997 at age 18, after the Sharks selected him second overall in the 1997 NHL Entry draft.

Just as important, Marleau has never missed more than eight games in a season, and he last missed a game in 2008-09.

Thanks to his incredible durability, Marleau has overcome a pair of lockouts to set the record, despite losing 116 potential games to the work stoppages.

The Sharks' all-time leader in games, points and goals, Marleau should eventually be an interesting case for Hall of Fame discussion, given that he's widely viewed as more of a compiler than a true superstar.