Michel Cormier

Cormier grew up in St-Louis-de-France, a small town located just outside of Trois-Rivières in the Province of Quebec. He grew up surrounded by hockey, as it was everything for the Cormier family as his dad played professionally in the USA for over 12 years. Furthermore, his dad was not the only professional player in the family; Cormier’s uncle, none other than Jean-Guy Talbot, had already made his way to the NHL, where he played over 1056 NHL games and won an impressive 7 Stanley cups.

Michel Jr started off his hockey career at a very young age, just like pretty much every other kid growing up in Quebec. He played all the way to the Quebec Major Junior League (QMJHL). A couple of years after his playing days were over, Michel wanted to get back into the hockey world and decided to start officiating in the fall of 1994.

Right away, his strong skating abilities and his size caught the officials supervisor’s attention in his hometown, and after just a few years of officiating, Cormier had already being hired by the QMJHL as a linesman.

2003 was a memorable year for Cormier, as he was selected to work the World Junior Championship in Halifax and Sydney, Nova Scotia, and, a few months later, he was chosen to work the Memorial Cup in Quebec City.

That summer (2003), former NHL director of officiating Andy Van Hellemond offered Cormier a full time NHL linesman contract. He became only the second linesman coming from “La Mauricie” to work in the NHL after Claude Bechard.

On October 10th, 2003, Michel Jr made his official entrance in the big leagues when he was asked to work his first NHL regular season game when the Los Angeles Kings took on the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Mellon Arena.