SAN JOSE – Vincent Desharnais was having a difficult time earlier this season after he had elbow surgery and was forced to miss 23 games from late November to mid-January. Going through his rehab, Desharnais experienced feelings of loneliness as he spent weeks away from the team and the sport he loved.
But regardless of how he was feeling, Desharnais always knew he could open up to Mike Aldrich, confident that whatever he said – however personal it was – wouldn’t leave the walls of his office.
“He was a person for me that I could talk to, and I could just be myself, and there are no filters, and I know that it’s going to stay between us,” the San Jose Sharks defenseman said. “He’s going to be dearly missed, and I know our next season won’t be the same without him. That’s for sure.”
After 32 seasons and more than 2,500 games as a head equipment manager in professional hockey, Aldrich is set to retire from the Sharks this summer. After being officially eliminated from playoff contention on Monday, the Sharks only have two more games with Aldrich: tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks and Thursday in Winnipeg against the Jets.
While the job is vital to any sports franchise, with the work going largely unnoticed by those outside each organization, Aldrich took on other unofficial roles that became just as important to the players he was around.
Confidant, sounding board, friend.
“I said something about him being important to the team and (Aldrich) went, ‘I hang jocks for a living,’” said Sharks color analyst Drew Remenda, who has known Aldrich since the early 1990s when they both worked with the team’s top minor league affiliate in Kansas City.
“I said, ‘No, you don’t know. You take care of everything else, so those guys can take care of what they do, which is play the game.’”
Aldrich politely declined to be interviewed for this story before the Sharks left for their season-ending three-game road trip.
In the morning of their final regular season game at home on Saturday, Sharks players and staff members each presented Aldrich with a gift at the team’s practice facility. The organization then took a moment to recognize Aldrich during the first period of the Sharks’ game against the Vancouver Canucks at SAP Center.
“He is the standard of what it is to be a Shark here,” said defenseman Mario Ferraro, the Sharks’ longest-tenured player. “He’s been here for 30 years. I’ve known him for the seven years I’ve been here. Just the energy, the Sharks culture, that’s him. He is the face of that.
“He comes to the rink every day with a positive attitude. Win or lose, he’s got energy, he’s got emotion. He sacrifices so much for us, his dedication to what he does, his work ethic.”
Mike Aldrich, center, equipment manager, sits on the bench during his last game in the second period at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, April 11, 2026. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
Before he joined the Sharks organization, Aldrich worked at Michigan Tech from 1989 to 1993 as the school’s equipment manager and athletic purchasing agent. He worked in Kansas City from 1993 to 1995 and has been on the Sharks’ bench ever since.
Aldrich also served as equipment manager for the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team that won silver at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, the American teams at the 2003 and 2005 World Championships, and the 2004 World Cup of Hockey.
Aldrich worked his 2,500th game on Jan. 7 when the Sharks were in Los Angeles.
That’s a lot of long days to make sure the player’s needs are met.
“There’s a lot of extremely late nights that we get in at maybe 2 or 3 a.m. on the road, they’re going to the rink at that time,” Ferraro said. “A lot of late, late nights, a lot of early mornings, long road trips away from family. He sacrificed so much throughout his time here to make us better as hockey players and allow us to be the best players we can be.
“He is the standard of Sharks hockey, and he will be missed. But the success that this team has had over the 30 years that he’s been here, he has a lot to do with.”
In that time, Aldrich gained immense respect throughout the NHL. Before home games this season, he was often seen visiting with fellow equipment managers from around the league, and after games, a handful of former Sharks players who were in San Jose for the final time this season came by to wish him well.
“The only regret I have is not being around him as long as I would have wanted to. Just being around him for a season was not enough,” said Desharnais, who was acquired by the Sharks in March 2025. “Just the energy that he brings to the rink, just the person that he is. Obviously, he’s really good at his job, but what he brings to the rink every day is that there are no bad days. He’s always smiling. His door is always open.
‘You want to go there because you’re not feeling great. You want to talk about other stuff, or you want to vent out about the coaches. You want to vent out about whatever it is, your game, and his door is always open, and it’s not going anywhere else. It stays between us, and that’s why everyone loves him so much. He’s been around for 30 years for a reason.”
Aldrich, an avid fisherman, and his wife, Susie, are moving back to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
“I wish I had been around him for five or 10 years, because he’s the type of person that I would see myself go fishing with,” Desharnais said. “He’s the type of person who you can talk to about anything and everything. He’s just a great person.”