(Credit: Ross Bonander/Texas Stars)
A cherry on top, McKenzie won the Dudley Garrett Memorial Award, given out to the most outstanding rookie in the American Hockey League, joining the ranks of Hockey Hall of Famers Brett Hull and Ron Hextall.
But in an all too common occurrence in professional hockey, the hard part is not getting to “the show” — it's staying there when you make it.
After suiting up in 99 NHL games, at 36, McKenzie is back in the AHL. The young hotshot forward from British Columbia has become the “old man” in the locker room with the captain’s C above his heart.
The once-perfect brown beard is now starting to sprinkle with gray whiskers. His brown eyes are seasoned, and the laugh lines around his cheeks have seemingly grown deeper since that first game in October.
The date and time on the giant video board struggles to flicker on — pixelated white letters and numbers softly blink on. The date is April 16, 2026, and the time is 11 a.m. Just one stretch remains before the start of tune-up practice for the final regular-season series with Rockford.
McKenzie has become the “AHL veteran.”
“It keeps me young — the youth energy with those guys every year,” McKenzie said. “I’m glad it's not all my peers or my age at this level, because it would be a little too grumpy.”
The Most Important Role in Dallas
(Credit: Andy Nietupski/Texas Stars)
“I was in a position where I could start passing on stuff and lessons I learned over my career,” McKenzie said.
However, it wasn’t an easy pill to swallow at first.
McKenzie grinded his way up to the NHL, but like so many before, the hardest part is proving to head coaches and general managers that you are deserving to stay up despite limited minutes as a bottom-six forward.
Then there were the injuries, each major and more life-threatening than the next, stunning his prime years in Dallas. A hip injury ended his season in 2015 and a right eye injury from a high stick in 2016 was mere inches away from blinding him permanently.
There would only be seven more NHL games left for McKenzie before Dallas would move on to younger and more intriguing prospects.
However, the desire never faded for him. Leaving the only organization he’s ever known, McKenzie signed with the Vegas Golden Knights and St. Louis Blues on two-way contracts to try one more time to make it to “the show.”
“I was still chasing it — the NHL dream,” McKenzie said.
Despite his production in the AHL with the Chicago Wolves as their fourth-best scorer and another trip to the Calder Cup Finals in 2019, two pandemic-shortened seasons limited his chances to earn a callup to Vegas or St. Louis — he was stuck in AHL purgatory.
During this limbo of his career, McKenzie's career priorities shifted following the birth of his first daughter. Hockey wasn’t just a time to play puck with the boys at the rink; it became his primary lifeline to support his new family.
Texas Stars head coach Toby Petersen, a teammate of McKenzie in his rookie season and an AHL veteran late in his playing career, said players’ options become limited once the NHL days in the review mirror.
“Your options are ‘I can go and continue to play at a high level in the American Hockey League in a great city with great fans,’ or ‘I can go overseas and try and milk it for another year or two,’” Petersen said. “With young families, it's not always the best or easiest transition.”
Dallas general manager Jim Nill called McKenzie, an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2021, to return to the organization. Nill needed a stable leader to foster the next generation of Dallas Stars.
The Texas Stars needed their captain again.
The Stability
(Credit: Andy Nietupski/Texas Stars)
But with a new head coach and the majority of their marquee players graduating to Dallas or elsewhere from its 2025 Western Conference Finals run, Texas stumbled out of the gates in 2026.
It culminated on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025, when the far outmatched Stars took a 60-minute drumming from the Grand Rapids Griffins. At the end of the night, the video board read:
GRAND RAPIDS: 10 - TEXAS: 1
It tied for the worst loss in franchise history, an agonizing defeat with no positives to take out of the night. Usually, after losses, Texas does not allow the media to interview players, especially on a night like that.
But McKenzie came out — he wasn’t asked or told; he did it of his own accord.
He described it as embarrassing, adding, “probably no one in the lineup there looked like we should be in this league tonight.”
At 5-10-1-1 on the year, it was a turning point for the Stars' season, the wake-up call for the guys in the locker room to step it up. After starting the season at the bottom of the league, Texas has returned to the Calder Cup playoffs for the fifth consecutive year.
“I saw him day one, he was effective and didn’t need a whole lot of mentorship other than just getting used to life away from the rink,” Petersen said. “Then you see him now, he’s in full control of the room as a leader.”
Texas forward Cross Hanas, in his first year with the Stars, credits the midseason turnaround to McKenzie’s veteran leadership.
“He's the best leader,” Hanas said. “He's cool as a cucumber on the bench. He's making sure we get going, making sure we're staying calm.”
Even in his mid-thirties, he’s still not afraid to drop the gloves to rally the intensity or score the occasional goal in his favorite spot — a backhand shot in the low slot, sneaking the puck in the goalie’s six-hole.
The nameplates in the locker may change and familiar faces fade away season-by-season in the chaotic world of the AHL, but at least in Cedar Park, Texas, No. 16 has been a constant.
“We’ve had so many great young players here,” McKenzie said. “You just try and shepherd them in the right direction, so that when they get there, they're ready to stay there, and they don't need time to come back.”
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