San Jose Sharks Get Lucky Call Again
I was three years old when my dad, Denis, took me to skate at the local rink in Aneroid for the first time. He said I got halfway around the rink, turned effectually and headed back to him, handing him the chair he'd given me for residue. "I don't want this," was all I said, and then I turned and went back out on the water ice.
I fell in honey with existence out at that place at a young historic period. Hockey has always brought me a happiness I can't put into words. It'southward the smell of the rink, the laughs with my teammates, the contest, the thrill of victory, and yes, fifty-fifty the sorrow of defeat that fuels the fire to go out and attempt again. I was lucky to find my passion when I did, from that very first lap.
Soon, I was skating each and every risk I got. Sometimes, that was on the dugout of our family's farm. At that place was a watering hole that the cattle used to drink from, and in the winter it would freeze. Then, nosotros would make a hole for the cows to get what they needed, and the rest would exist frozen and waiting for my brother and I to play our own version of an NHL game. I idolized Mario Lemieux growing upwards, so I would pretend to exist him winning Stanley Cups for the Penguins. Right there, during those vicious Saskatchewan winters, my dream was built-in. I'd come habitation in tears with frozen feet, and my mom would slowly warm me back up. Those core memories, all centered on hockey and family, make up so much of who I am. They are still the most of import things in my life today.
Growing up on our family'south 1,600-acre subcontract meant a lot of hard piece of work, sacrifice and an appreciation for the simple things in life. My mom and dad worked tirelessly for me and my older sister and blood brother, Denise and Richard. Chores were a way of life for us, instruction usa more than but the importance of getting a job done. Those early mornings feeding cattle, shoveling grain or bailing hay taught me a work ethic that defined my career. But I also have to requite credit to my brother and sis.
When I began to travel more than for hockey, information technology was the ii of them who had to choice upwards the slack for my share of the chores. I never heard either of them complain though. And my mom and dad must have spent hundreds — maybe thousands — of hours driving me to games, practices or tournaments. The sacrifices that everyone in my family made for me immune me to follow my dreams. My career doesn't happen without each of them. Dad had an opportunity to play for the Weyburn Red Wings, a junior team in Saskatchewan. But my grandpa had been determined that he stay and help out on the farm at dwelling, then Dad'due south dream ended in that location. He made sure that mine did not. It was truly a collective cede for me.
When I was just 14, my parents allowed me to move to Swift Current with my grandma. The hockey was better there, so afterwards Mom had told me to stay out of trouble or I would exist coming back home, I packed my bags, my favorite VHS Lemieux record and left. Equally thankful as I was then, being a parent now, I am fifty-fifty more thankful. I didn't realize how difficult and heartbreaking information technology must have been for them to allow me get so immature.
Just two years after that, I was on my fashion to Seattle to play for the Thunderbirds. That'southward where I met some of my best friends, who I still have today. For all the toughness, fighting and competition that defines hockey, it is also defined by a alliance that I can honestly say is the highlight of my lifetime on skates. I am a lucky man for a whole lot of reasons, and my friendships from hockey is definitely i of them. Seattle is where I began to realize, Hey, maybe I could actually make it to the NHL. Maybe this hockey thing could be my job.
As the '97 draft was coming upwards, my parents had started to get calls from agents wanting to represent me. Some came up to the farm, others simply telephone calls. Merely one amanuensis stood out among all of the others. He told me and my parents, "Look, I would beloved to represent Patrick. But he doesn't need to worry almost whatsoever of this all the same. He just needs to keep doing what he's doing, playing dandy hockey." Guess who we chose? Don Baizley made it clear that playing hockey comes first, non the business organisation of it. I respected that. I respected him, and he became like a 2d father to me. Don would call throughout the season to check in, and he gave me advice that I still utilize to this solar day. He also held me accountable when necessary and was a trusted confidant. Sadly, Don passed away in 2013, but I will forever owe and so much of my career to him. I can't enlarge the influence he had on my life, or the lives of his other clients. His legacy lives on through usa all.
The night before the draft in Pittsburgh, Don was walking my family and I through the process and likely scenarios. Then I met up with Dean Lombardi and the Sharks' scouts. They were complimentary, but left the meeting with, "Well, if we don't merchandise our choice, nosotros'll take you at 2." I get asked a lot if I knew San Jose was going to take me that day, and the truth is I did not. I knew if they didn't merchandise their pick, I would be heading to California, only they could have traded it away at the last 2d if they'd wanted. It was non until I heard my proper noun that I knew. It kind of seems like a dream looking back now. All those hours at the rink, in the gym, schoolwork on the bus rides, bumps and bruises all leading to that moment. Lilliputian did I know, that was just the offset.
I couldn't accept told you much about San Jose before the summertime of '97. I knew information technology was in California, just that'due south a big land. Was it by the beach? A desert city? All I knew was that there was a newish team there that wanted me, and I needed to bring it. I showed up about a month earlier military camp, checked into a hotel and got to piece of work. Nigh a calendar month or so into my rookie season, I was finally told I could become a identify to live. Kelly Hrudey, who was playing in that location at the time, had gone into Dean's office and said he and his married woman, Donna, had a guest house that they wanted me to stay in. My parents were thankful, the team was more than okay with it, and I was excited to not take to become abode to an empty flat each twenty-four hours. Kelly and I would eat afterwards games together in his kitchen and stay up besides late laughing and telling stories. We put together Barbie houses and other toys the night before Christmas, giving me a glimpse of the life that my own would soon mimic (maybe more hockey nets than Barbie houses side by side to our fireplace, though). That rookie flavor might mean a little more than all of the others, considering it was the realization of a dream.
I learned and so much from so many of those guys I played with my first years in the league. Naming them all would be like a ringlet phone call, but in that location are a few guys that stand out: Kelly, manifestly, Tony Granato, Murray Craven, Gary Suter, Mike Ricci and Adam Graves.
Each of those guys had a part to play in my early career — I would take bits and pieces of their game or their communication and put them to work. I wish I could name every guy I have played alongside, simply that would make this much likewise long. The reality is that we learn from everyone we come across in life. Nosotros learn from some more than others, but our experiences shape who we are. I recall when we were on the route those first couple of years, when I wasn't one-time enough to legally go out after a game. I would hang out and watch movies in the hotel room, play video games, call friends or my girlfriend from the hotel phone … or, if we were in Canada, I would join the team because I was of age in that location. Those memories — off of the water ice, but with the guys I battled with on it — are the ones that brand me smile the almost when I expect back on the final 25-plus years.
Playing in San Jose was the stuff of fairy tales. It was a new team, a beautiful metropolis in California (where the weather was just a smidge nicer than the cold, bitter Canadian air I was used to). I got to play in one of the newest rinks in the league, with loud, passionate fans cheering us on. The horn that goes off when a home-team goal is scored in SAP Eye is music to my ears. Our teams were gritty, hardworking, and never stopped fighting until the concluding buzzer. Building those first years of history for the Sharks was a responsibility I didn't take lightly, or for granted. I hope the city, the organisation and the fans tin can exist proud of what we achieved then.
There are so many moments throughout my career that I can look back on and say were among the elevation. Only, of class, there are always a few that will stand out. Like my first goal, against Nikolai Khabibulin, or my showtime playoff series. There'due south my first shift, in my outset game, when Bryan Marchment came right for me and somehow I avoided that hitting…. Welcome to the large leagues, child. Bryan later introduced me to my married woman, then all is forgiven.
In 2010, I was named to Team Canada for the Olympics in Vancouver. After we won gold, my wife and I were in a cab trying to go to dinner with Brenden Morrow and his wife. We were at a expressionless stop. The streets were full of fans, singing the canticle, waving the flag, still cheering the OT gold goal Crosby had scored but an hr before. And there I was, witnessing a moment in history, having been a function of that team, seeing the joy and unity it had brought to fans from every groundwork. That part of sport is monumental to me. That little boy on his dugout with frozen feet would never have believed the life he would get to live.
In 2016, I finally got to play in the Stanley Cup finals. I'one thousand not gonna lie: when I think about how shut we were to winning, information technology still stings. But I know that we all left information technology all out on the ice that year. Once again, I got to witness so many people from different backgrounds all coming together to cheer us on, decked out in teal and face pigment, making the Tank the loudest I have ever heard information technology. That new squad — the metropolis I couldn't find on a map — was a hockey town if I'd ever seen one. To encounter how far the team and urban center had come up in the 19 years since I had been drafted made me proud for all of us.
1 of the toughest decisions professionally I ever made was to attempt something new in the summer of 2017. I moved my family unit to the center of the hockey universe and put on a Maple Leafs sweater. Playing for the Leafs was surreal. A real "compression me" moment. My family loved it at that place, and our boys still want to get back and play on our backyard rink. That opportunity I gave them was like being a kid again. But I was at present the older veteran on a squad total of crazy-talented immature kids. Kids like Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. Kids that are closer to the historic period of my ain sons than to me. Watching them and their beloved of the game fabricated me fall in dear with hockey all again. I have no doubt that those guys will win a Cup 1 day, and when they do, I know they'll retrieve all those mini-stick battles in the basement.
Information technology's surreal to me that the Penguins — the squad I grew upwards pretending to play for, wearing their T-shirts for many, many schoolhouse photos, where my idol played — gave me an opportunity to play in Pittsburgh for real. Unfortunately, it was during the Covid shutdown, and the squad didn't exercise too every bit we all had expected or hoped, but I will always, always be and so grateful that I got to live out another dream. That jersey nevertheless hangs in my closet and I tin't assistance just wonder why God has been so generous to me and allowed me to live this life.
Equally with nigh professional athletes, I feel similar I could play forever. I wish I could play forever — my boys would like to come across me play for the next 10 years if they could. But at that place comes a time when I have to be grateful and thankful for the time I accept been given, and to make way for the next generation to brand their own dreams come true. I won't prevarication: walking into this next phase of life hasn't been easy. I accept lived and breathed hockey for nearly 40 years. I accept had to figure out who I am again. Simply I also get to still go to the rink almost every mean solar day, only this fourth dimension it is with my own sons. This fourth dimension I get to sacrifice for someone else, to help them attain their own full potential. I have gone to hockey tournaments for all of my boys, I've got to help coach, I have read bedtime stories, helped with homework, and finally gotten to be a part of my own family unit'south life on a daily basis — non only between my own games or road trips. I know I can't brand up for lost time with them, but I can be present and enjoy the terminal days of them at dwelling house before they each get chase downwardly their own dreams.
Today, I announce my retirement from hockey.
It's bittersweet for sure, but I take so much to wait forward to. Who knows what the globe has in store for me. If you would have told that kid on the frozen pond that he would break a games-played record held by none other than Gordie Howe, he would have thought you were crazy. It was never something I aimed for; it was only me loving this game so much that I never, ever wanted to hang up my skates. I am beyond lucky to take had the career I had, but I did not get here by myself.
To Mom and Dad, your sacrifice and dearest gave me the opportunities that got me where I am today. You e'er believed in me and cheered me on. I owe you lot two a gratitude I tin't put into words. I dearest you both so much. Thanks for everything you have washed for me.
Richard and Denise, give thanks yous for your support both during my career and before. Whether information technology was doing my chores or driving hours to sentry my games in the center of winter. I tin can't tell you how much I have appreciated having you both in my life.
I can't stress this one plenty: thank you to the people of San Jose and the Sharks franchise. I came to San Jose equally a 17-year-old male child. I had big dreams and you showed organized religion in me from day 1. Thanks for allowing me to put that jersey on, year after yr, decade subsequently decade. I promise I take left a history that you and the urban center tin can be proud of. There are so many people that I would like to personally thank, but I need to quickly name just a few: Mike Aldrich, Ray Tufts and Wes Howard take been there since the starting time. Those guys are similar family to me.
I came to San Jose as a 17-year-quondam boy. I had big dreams and you lot showed religion in me from Day Ane. Thank you for allowing me to put that jersey on, yr after yr, decade after decade.
- Patrick Marleau
To Don, your presence is missed but your legacy lives on in everything I do. I miss you.
Pat Brisson, your guidance the last few years has been appreciated and so helpful.
To each of my teammates during my career, thank you for being a office of my dream come true. Each of yous made this ride worthwhile. I am privileged to have been a role of so many great locker rooms and amazing teams.
I demand to mention one teammate in particular. Jumbo and I entered this league together, and I was fortunate enough to be able to share the water ice with him for more half of my career. Your positive outlook has always been infectious. Thank you for all those peachy passes, Joe. You're not only a teammate, but a lifelong friend.
To Toronto and Pittsburgh, thank you for the opportunities I had with each of you lot, your organizations, and cities. I even so wake up thinking, did I actually get to clothing that iconic foliage on my chest? Did I actually get to put that Penguins jersey on? I did, and I am forever grateful and humbled.
Landon, Brody, Jagger and Caleb, everything I do is for you four boys. You are all growing and condign incredible young men, and you each make me so proud every day. I hope you piece of work hard, be respectful, exist kind, assistance others and follow your dreams. When y'all were born, I recall thinking, I hope I tin play long enough so you'll recall watching my games. I pray that I have made you proud. I am excited to keep to watch you boys live your dreams out, and I will be alongside cheering you on and supporting each of y'all every footstep of the fashion.
Most of all, I am thankful to my wife, Christina. I couldn't take done any of this without her. There's nothing I could say here to truly bear witness my appreciation for her. She is a superhero. The best mom in the world. I am a lucky man to have had her by my side throughout this journeying. I would non be the man I am today without her, her honest advice or tardily-night therapy talks afterward a game.
And lastly….
Cheers, hockey.
For the lessons. The laughs. The tears. Y'all permit me alive out my dreams.
—Patrick
Source: https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/patrick-marleau-nhl-hockey-retirement-san-jose-sharks
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