FEATURE: Mike Gapski to Retire After 36 Seasons with Blackhawks

As the Blackhawks enter Thursday night's game to play in their last game of the 2022-23 season against the Philadelphia Flyers, one person will be stepping behind the bench for the final time.
Head Athletic Trainer Mike Gapski will wrap up his 36th -- and final -- season with the Chicago Blackhawks as the longest tenure trainer with one team. After celebrating his 65th birthday on Monday, he is ready to close this chapter of his life and enjoy a well-deserved retirement, proud of everything that he and the team have accomplished.
"I think I'm ready for it," Gapski said. "After all these years, it's time to move on and kind of get it established, like a normal life. I've enjoyed it. We've had some great times on the Stanley Cups and things like that, and my family has enjoyed every bit of it. But I think it's time for me to move, step down and move on to next chapter."

At the close of Thursday's game, Gapski will have completed 2,758 regular-season games and another 249 playoff contests -- the longest-tenured trainer for a single team in NHL history. Chicago owns an all-time regular-season record of 1268-1111-183-191 and a playoff record of 134-115 during his time. His 1,268 wins would stand alone as the 22nd winningest franchise in NHL history.
More impressively, in the nearly 100-year history of the Blackhawks, Gapski has worked with 53.1% of all players to play for the franchise (536 total -- 483 skaters and 53 goaltenders.

When he first joined the team in 1987 coming out of the University of Illinois Chicago, Gapski began with a roster featuring names like Troy Murray and Denis Savard to kick off his career. From there he watched the team rise to a preeminent franchise of the early '90s with a trip to the 1992 Stanley Cup Final, then go through a full rebuild and climb to new heights with three Stanley Cups in the 2010s, watching the entire careers of franchise names players like Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews.
"We built all those kids that came in and were drafted by us," Gapski said. "So, I was with them from day one. Some of those guys were here longer than they weren't. It was fun to see them grow and develop."
Murray was one of the first players he ever worked with when he started his Blackhawks career and continued to work with him for seven seasons.
One of the most important things that the former forward and current Blackhawks color analyst enjoyed the most about Gapski is his ability to form strong bonds with his players. Whether it was in the training room or a night out on the road, Gapski helped spark great chemistry within the team.
"We've spent a lot of time together," Murray said. "Back in the day, we would spend a lot of time on the road together as a group and Gapper would be always there. He was always a part of our guys. We appreciated what he did, and I don't think that anybody that has gone through the Blackhawks organization can say a bad word about Mike Gapski."
As for Savard, he worked with the head athletic trainer as both a player and as the head coach. While working with him through different parts of his career, he noted that the trainer always remained the same despite the changes in position.
The former Blackhawks captain described Gapski as a person who brought a good balance to the team. He knew how to create great relationships with the players he worked with but also knew when to be serious when it can time to take them off the ice and focus on their injuries instead.
"He would dictate, and we'd respect his opinion, if they skated or not," Savard said. "If he didn't feel like they shouldn't be on the ice and they should be in treatment, there was no argument about that because he was good at what he did."

While he doesn't have a favorite moment that stuck out throughout his 36 years, but a time that he does cherish is being able to share the Stanley Cup wins with his wife, Lynne, and four children, Mike, Steven, Gillian and Ryan.
His oldest son, Mike, was born when he and the team first advanced to the Stanley Cup Final in 1992 against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the elder Gapski is proud that he was able to share those moments in 2010, 2013 and 2015 with them and knows that it's something they will remember forever.
"They were all old enough to appreciate it," Gapski said. "So, they're able to have fun at all the different parties and experiences like this with the winning, to the parades and to the parties. They were able to experience it all and they're going to be able to remember it. That's probably my favorite part."

As for the former players he worked with, guys like Murray and others continue to keep in contact with their former trainer following their careers. Even when they might have disagreed with some decisions to remain out due to their injuries, they always knew that he was putting them first.
"Gapper is just one of the best guys and a true professional," Murray said. "For him to last, as long as he has in the NHL and go out on top of the game the way that he wants to do it. It's been really impressive and as a credit to the type of person that he is."
Going into next season, Gapski will continue to help out from time to time, especially at the beginning of the season to help ease the transition into training camp. Now, though, he looks forward to starting a new chapter in his life where he can enjoy some time off during the fall and winter months.
With no solid retirement plans made at the moment, the Chicago native looks forward to being able to spend time with his family and friends at his lake house in Michigan and taking some time to fish. The biggest adjustment now is having to learn how to live in his new normal where he can make his own schedule.
"I haven't really made any serious plans, I just know that I have some," Gapski said. "I can't say normal life because this has been normal for me for that last 36 years, so it's always been normal. It's a different kind of a normal life versus just a one where I can make my own schedule versus [being] under the control of schedules and things like that, so it might be nice to do."