SAN JOSE — For months, the Sharks fan base was in a sour mood that started with the team’s historic playoff collapse against the Los Angeles Kings. Then the decision not to bring back Drew Remenda alienated one segment. The announcement that “ice girls” were on the horizon antagonized another.

But Saturday, the Sharks scheduled their first Fan Fest in franchise history. And 15,000 fans gobbled up the free tickets for the event at SAP Center that featured a morning skate, round-table discussions, autograph sessions and even the chance to have a photo taken under the trademark shark head lowered from the rafters to ice level.

And while fans had not forgotten what went wrong last spring, they seemed ready to move on.

“I think you can be angry and I think fans have a right to be angry. We pay the money,” said Nick Delgado, who drove nearly an hour from his Richmond home for the event. “But I still love the team. I’ve been with them too long and I know they’re trying to do good.”

The Fan Fest schedule was not publicized in advance, so the day’s first event — a sit-down with general manager Doug Wilson and scouting director Tim Burke — did not draw a big crowd until it was winding down. Some fans expressed disappointment that they weren’t able to ask questions as the TV crew of Randy Hahn and Jamie Baker kept the conversation going, but that was the established format.

Wilson talked about his reaction to the team’s loss and the shift in emphasis to younger players that have come up through the organization. He drew comparisons to the 2003-04 team — his first as G.M. — and, in what sounded like an indirect request for patience, mentioned how they started the season 1-5-4 before turning things around and eventually reaching the Western Conference finals.

The event was similar to ones that other NHL teams have done for years and comparable to ones the Sharks have restricted to season-ticket holders in the past.

But the timing, said chief operating officer John Tortora, was not keyed to the fan dissatisfaction that started with the loss to the Kings in Game 7 of their first-round series.

Tortora noted that the event was on his to-do list as soon as he was elevated to his new position in June 2013, but there was not enough time to organize it before the start of the 2013-14 season.

“It became an immediate priority of mine — draft-day party, fan fest, prospects game,” Tortora said earlier this week, citing the other events he wanted to initiate. “We were able to pull off the prospects game rather quickly, but the others needed lead time to do.”

Based on what happened at Saturday’s event, he said, the team will consider any changes needed for the future — “ways to improve on it, make it bigger, move it to a different time of year. We’ll evaluate all that.”

Roger Dellinger and his wife, Pati, have been season-ticket holders for the past 20 years. He said he was so frustrated last spring when the Sharks dropped three consecutive games to Los Angeles that he didn’t want to be there for Game 7 and let someone else use his ticket.

Not that he’s gotten totally past that — “There’s probably a little bit of a cloud” — but he acknowledges “it’s a new season and you’ve got to look forward to what’s going to happen now.”

For more on the Sharks, see David Pollak’s Working the Corners blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/sharks.