Martone ignites his NHL career with a crucial assist, unleashing relentless offense and a fearless attitude. He's not just adjusting; he's arrived.
Electrifying.
That’s the best way to describe Porter Martone’s emergence into the NHL.
After leading the Michigan State Spartans men's ice hockey in goals this season as a freshman, the young star was thrown right into the middle of a playoff push.
Martone joined the Philadelphia Flyers two games ago and has already accounted for 15 shots and one assist.
Collecting the first point of what feels like a certainly bright NHL career, Martone uncorked a shot that Spartan fans saw so many times this season. The puck was fired into a messy, chaotic cluster in front of John Gibson, the Detroit Red Wings’ goaltender. It then caught his teammate, Travis Konecny, and somehow squeezed its way through Red Wings defenders, off Konecny, above Gibson’s glove, and under the crossbar.
One miraculous shot.
But that shot alone isn’t the story.
Martone has exploded onto the scene, completely ignoring the old-school idea that NHL newcomers should ease into things and be selective with the puck. Instead, he’s done the exact opposite. Martone bucked that trend by putting up nine shots against the Red Wings in just his second NHL game. That came after a five-shot performance against the Washington Capitals in his debut.
That’s not adjusting.
That’s arriving.
Martone hasn’t skipped a beat coming from Michigan State. Spartan fans watched 37 games of him this year. We saw the hat tricks against Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's ice hockey. We saw him throw his body on the line every single night. We saw a player who was absolutely relentless.
Martone was a stone-cold killer in East Lansing, and he’s brought that same killer mentality with him to the NHL.
And honestly, he looks like he belongs already.
Martone is going to be a thorn in everyone’s side for a long time to come. Just think about the situation he stepped into. He entered a season with only eight games left, with his team sitting just two points out of a playoff spot. That alone is wild enough. Then your first NHL game comes against one of the most dangerous scorers the game has ever seen—arguably the greatest goal scorer since Wayne Gretzky—and your second comes against a divisional rival fighting for the same postseason life.
That is not exactly a soft landing.
Can you imagine being thrown into that whirlwind?
And on top of all that, there’s the media spotlight that comes with being a professional athlete—especially when you’re as highly touted as Martone. He was the sixth overall pick in last year’s draft, and with that comes pressure, expectations, and a whole lot of attention.
Most players in that situation would shrink a little. They’d hesitate. They’d pass up shots. They’d try not to make mistakes.
But not Martone.
Martone basically came in and said, hold my juice box.
He led the Flyers in shots in both of his first two NHL games, even if both ended in losses for Philadelphia. And more importantly, he didn’t just look active—he looked dangerous.
During the Detroit broadcast, announcers Mickey Redmond and Ken Daniels couldn’t stop talking about Martone and how natural he looked. He was always in the right spot at the right time. He had that instinctive feel for where the puck was going to end up and where he needed to be when it got there.
That’s not something you can fake.
And even if you weren’t listening to the broadcast, you could still see it plain as day. Martone just has “it.” That feel. That timing. That nose for danger around the net.
Truthfully, you could see this coming back at Michigan State.
Leading the Spartans—and nearly the nation—in goals as a freshman is no easy feat. That kind of production doesn’t just happen by accident. But somehow, something seems to have gone even more haywire in the best possible way now that he’s put on the orange and black in Philadelphia.
Martone looks like a monster out there. Or an alien. Or maybe a robot whose only mission is to get the puck past the goalie—and he’ll stop at absolutely nothing to do it.
That’s what makes him so fun to watch.
He still awaits his first NHL goal, but if these first two games are any indication, it feels less like a matter of if and much more like when.
Martone and the Flyers will face the Red Wings again on Thursday, April 9, at Little Caesars Arena.
And if you’re a Spartan fan, it might be worth tuning in.
Because this is starting to feel like the beginning of something special.