Everything Falling Into Place for Dorrington, Family

By Michael Fornabaio (@fornabaioctp)

His plan to get to professional hockey worked well, but the coincidences that may bring Max Dorrington's family together in more ways than one over the next few weeks, well, there was really no predicting those.

Dorrington joined the Bridgeport Islanders on an amateur tryout on March 19 at the end of his graduate-school season at Sacred Heart. The forward made his pro debut Sunday against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Hours earlier, the New York Rangers announced that they had signed Dorrington's brother, Jackson.

Reviews were positive for Dorrington's first game with Bridgeport, with his parents down from North Reading, Mass., in the crowd.

"It was exciting. It's a little faster paced, but the guys were great, and I thought that we played hard," Dorrington said. "It was definitely a good experience for my first game."

Dorrington, 23, helped Sacred Heart to its first Atlantic Hockey semifinal appearance in 15 years. He said the experience was "awesome": great coaches; great facility, the new Martire Family Arena, and great teammates, a lot of whom were in the crowd Sunday and a few of whom joined his family for dinner afterward.

"I played four years at St. Lawrence University, and for my fifth year, I was looking for a spot that I could make the transition to pro, play a lot and have good coaching," Dorrington said, "Sacred Heart checked all those boxes. It was a natural fit."

A three-time ECAC all-academic team pick, he is finishing an MBA at Sacred Heart after studying economics and statistics at St. Lawrence, another place close to his heart.

Bridgeport coach Rick Kowalsky said Dorrington came as advertised in his debut. As with any young player, there are some things to work on, but lots to like, too.

"I got some reports on him being physical, and obviously, he's a really big kid," Kowalsky said; Dorrington is listed at 6-foot-3, 215 pounds. The coach said Dorrington played a good role in the second period Sunday as Bridgeport tried to push back from an early deficit.

"The message after the first was to be more physical, and he kind of led the charge," Kowalsky said. "And I think he lost one faceoff."

Tyce Thompson, who played on a line with Dorrington and Eetu Liukas, said Dorrington brought a lot of energy.

"It's easy to play with him," Thompson said. "On the forecheck, he was creating some havoc, and it was nice. I thought he had played a really good first game, and I enjoyed playing with him."

Dorrington grew up in North Reading, a little north of Boston. His parents were athletes at Harvard, but not ice hockey players. Dad Michael was a pitcher for the Crimson (A story that's online from the school newspaper called him "'Closed' Dorrington" after he allowed just one run in a win), but, Max said, his father played hockey growing up; he's from Canada.

Logical enough: The Dorringtons are distant cousins of Art Dorrington, who was the first Black player to sign with an NHL team, the Rangers, in 1950. Dorrington, from Nova Scotia, also settled in the United States; he died in 2017 in Atlantic City, N.J., where he'd played.

"My family's extremely proud of the history behind it," Max Dorrington said. "He was the first Black player to sign a professional contract, which is pretty cool. Just trying to follow in his footsteps and fulfill that legacy."

There are two more Dorringtons in pro hockey than there were a little over a week ago.

Vancouver took Jackson Dorrington in the sixth round of the 2022 NHL Draft. On Jan. 31, as part of the long-awaited trade that sent J.T. Miller from the Canucks to New York, Jackson's rights went to the Rangers.

Jackson, a defenseman who had just finished his third year at Northeastern, signed his entry-level contract with the Rangers and joined the Hartford Wolf Pack for the rest of this season on an ATO of his own.

"My parents are excited," Max Dorrington said. "I'm very excited for him. It's well deserved, and it's something you could kind of see coming for him from a long time away. But at the same time, he worked very hard, and we're just very excited."

Not to get ahead of ourselves, and who knows how lineup decisions will work by then, but Hartford and Bridgeport meet three times in April, including games April 9 and April 12 (the day before Jackson's 21st birthday) at Total Mortgage Arena.

"I never played against him," Max Dorrington said. "I played with him at Cushing Academy for a couple of seasons, but I've never played against him, so that would be something new for us."