{"id":269029,"date":"2026-04-15T13:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T13:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/269029\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T13:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T13:01:09","slug":"mike-aldrich-bids-san-jose-sharks-farewell-after-32-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/269029\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Aldrich bids San Jose Sharks farewell after 32 seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 Vincent Desharnais was having a difficult time earlier this season after he had elbow surgery<\/a> and was forced to miss 23 games from late November to mid-January.<\/a> Going through his rehab, Desharnais experienced feelings of loneliness as he spent weeks away from the team and the sport he loved.<\/p>\n

But regardless of how he was feeling, Desharnais always knew he could open up to Mike Aldrich,<\/a> confident that whatever he said \u2013 however personal it was \u2013 wouldn\u2019t leave the walls of his office.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe 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\u2019s going to stay between us,\u201d the San Jose Sharks defenseman<\/a> said. \u201cHe\u2019s going to be dearly missed, and I know our next season won\u2019t be the same without him. That\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

After 32 seasons and more than 2,500 games<\/a> 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<\/a> on Monday, the Sharks only have two more games with Aldrich: tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks and Thursday in Winnipeg against the Jets.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Confidant, sounding board, friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said something about him being important to the team and (Aldrich) went, \u2018I hang jocks for a living,\u2019\u201d said Sharks color analyst Drew Remenda, who has known Aldrich since the early 1990s when they both worked with the team\u2019s top minor league affiliate in Kansas City.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018No, you don\u2019t know. You take care of everything else, so those guys can take care of what they do, which is play the game.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Aldrich politely declined to be interviewed for this story before the Sharks left for their season-ending three-game road trip.<\/p>\n

In the morning of their final regular season game<\/a> at home on Saturday, Sharks players and staff members each presented Aldrich with a gift at the team\u2019s practice facility. The organization then took a moment to recognize Aldrich during the first period of the Sharks\u2019 game against the Vancouver Canucks at SAP Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is the standard of what it is to be a Shark here,\u201d said defenseman Mario Ferraro, the Sharks\u2019 longest-tenured player. \u201cHe\u2019s been here for 30 years. I\u2019ve known him for the seven years I\u2019ve been here. Just the energy, the Sharks culture, that\u2019s him. He is the face of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe comes to the rink every day with a positive attitude. Win or lose, he\u2019s got energy, he\u2019s got emotion. He sacrifices so much for us, his dedication to what he does, his work ethic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MikeMike 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)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before he joined the Sharks organization, Aldrich worked at Michigan Tech from 1989 to 1993 as the school\u2019s equipment manager and athletic purchasing agent. He worked in Kansas City from 1993 to 1995 and has been on the Sharks\u2019 bench ever since.<\/p>\n

Aldrich also served as equipment manager for the U.S. Olympic men\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Aldrich worked his 2,500th<\/a> game on Jan. 7 when the Sharks were in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a lot of long days to make sure the player\u2019s needs are met.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of extremely late nights that we get in at maybe 2 or 3 a.m. on the road, they\u2019re going to the rink at that time,\u201d Ferraro said. \u201cA 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe 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\u2019s been here, he has a lot to do with.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d said Desharnais, who was acquired by the Sharks in March 2025. \u201cJust the energy that he brings to the rink, just the person that he is. Obviously, he\u2019s really good at his job, but what he brings to the rink every day is that there are no bad days. He\u2019s always smiling. His door is always open.<\/p>\n

\u2018You want to go there because you\u2019re 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\u2019s not going anywhere else. It stays between us, and that\u2019s why everyone loves him so much. He\u2019s been around for 30 years for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aldrich, an avid fisherman, and his wife, Susie, are moving back to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I had been around him for five or 10 years, because he\u2019s the type of person that I would see myself go fishing with,\u201d Desharnais said. \u201cHe\u2019s the type of person who you can talk to about anything and everything. He\u2019s just a great person.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 Vincent Desharnais was having a difficult time earlier this season after he had elbow surgery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2068,4217,117187,88,90,89,98,4218,1707],"class_list":{"0":"post-269029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","9":"tag-mario-ferraro","10":"tag-mike-aldrich","11":"tag-san-jose","12":"tag-san-jose-headlines","13":"tag-san-jose-news","14":"tag-san-jose-sharks","15":"tag-vincent-desharnais","16":"tag-winnipeg-jets"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}