SAN JOSE >> The large teal banner with a No. 12 on it began to be raised at 6:46 p.m. on Saturday. Watching from a short distance away, Patrick Marleau, already teary-eyed from a touching 30-minute speech, stood with his family as it was slowly lifted to the rafters at SAP Center.

More than 25 years after he played his first game inside the downtown arena, just weeks after his 18th birthday, Marleau had his number officially retired by the San Jose Sharks, the organization with which he made NHL history.

“It was in this very arena that I grew from a boy with stars in his eyes to a man, a husband, and then a father,” Marleau said. “This will always be home to me. Thank you for this honor of a lifetime.”

Marleau, drafted second overall by the Sharks in 1997, retired as the most prolific forward in team history, as he finished with 1,111 points in 1,607 NHL games with the organization. His franchise-leading 522 goals are 167 more than anyone else in team history, and the 566 goals Marleau scored for his career put him 23rd on the NHL’s all-time list.

The large crowd broke out chants of “Patty, Patty,” multiple times during the ceremony.

“I don’t know that I truly have a favorite moment,” Marleau said before he took a moment to fight back tears. “I was living my dream every day, and I got to do the majority of that right here in San Jose.”

Marleau, now 43, became emotional as he talked about his parents, Denis and Jeanette, his teammates, particularly Joe Thornton, and his wife Christina and their sons Landon, Brody, Jagger, and Caleb.

“I really don’t know what I did to deserve someone like you,” Marleau said as he spoke to Christina. “You’ve seen me and my best, you’ve seen me at my worst, and you’ve loved and supported me through it all.”

Besides his decorated NHL career, Marleau also helped Team Canada win gold medals at both the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics. He won in 2010 with Thornton, Dan Boyle, and Dany Heatley, and in 2014 with Marc-Edouard Vlasic.

Thornton and Heatley were among the large group of former teammates who watched the ceremony while seated at ice level, and Vlasic and his Sharks teammates sat on the team’s bench.

“To have a career like Patrick did, it’s not by chance,” Thornton said in a video message. “He worked every day, every day on something he loved to do, so it really wasn’t work for him. He enjoyed coming to the rink, sweating, trying to get better, having fun with the guys and that was every single day with Patty.”

Marleau said about Thornton, “You’re much more than just a teammate, but a friend I hope to have for life.” Thornton, seated behind Marleau, also had tears in his eyes.

Marleau also thanked his NHL coaches, Darryl Sutter, Ron Wilson, Todd McLellan, Pete DeBoer and Mike Babcock, mentioning Mike Sullivan and Bob Boughner, with special acknowledgments for former Sharks assistant Jay Woodcroft, now the Edmonton Oilers head coach, and Mike Ricci.

Marleau’s greatest abilities were his durability and availability. Despite the numerous bumps and bruises he accumulated over a 23-year NHL career, he only missed 31 games, helping him become the NHL’s all-time leader with 1,779 regular season games played over 23 seasons. He played his 1,768th game on April 19, 2021, passing the legendary Gordie Howe.

Marleau played 910 straight games, the fifth-longest ironman streak in NHL history, from April 9, 2009, to his last game on May 12, 2021. After a year in which he did not receive another NHL contract, Marleau officially retired on May 10, 2022, and the Sharks announced on July 28 that he would be the first player to have his number retired by the organization.

“He’s been such a big part of the San Jose area and San Jose sports,” Thornton said Friday. “To be the first player to have his number up in the rafters, I don’t think there will be a dry eye in the whole arena.”