coachella valley firebirds captain Max McCormick He retired from professional hockey after a 12-year career.
McCormick, who missed most of the 2024-25 season and all of the 2025-26 season due to injury, played 540 games in the American Hockey League with the Firebirds, Charlotte Checkers, Chicago Wolves, Colorado Eagles, Belleville Senators and Binghamton Senators. He totaled 159 goals and 178 assists for 337 points and participated in the 2023 AHL All-Star Classic.
McCormick had 26 goals and 19 assists for 45 points in 53 Calder Cup playoff games and led Coachella Valley to Western Conference titles in the club’s first two seasons (2022-23 and 2023-24).
McCormick, who was signed as a free agent by the Seattle Kraken ahead of the inaugural 2021-22 season, is the Firebirds’ leader in goals (67), second in points (140) and third in games played (158).
“The decision to retire from the sport I have loved for as long as I can remember was not an easy one, and while I had hoped to play the sport forever, the time has come to hang up the skates,” McCormick said. “I look back on my career with a heart full of gratitude and pride. Hockey has given me so many great memories, lifelong friendships and opportunities I never imagined possible.”
McCormick was drafted by the Ottawa Senators in the sixth round of the 2011 NHL Draft and played 94 games in the National Hockey League with Ottawa, Carolina and Seattle, scoring eight goals and five assists.
McCormick was named the AHL’s IOA/USA Professional Team of the Year Award winner by the Firebirds for his outstanding contributions to the local community and charitable organizations during the 2025-26 season.
