The Philadelphia Flyers will be adding reinforcements to their late-season playoff push in the form of top prospect Porter Martone.
The 6th overall pick from the 2025 NHL Entry Draft was ousted out of the NCAA’s Frozen Four tournament last night against Wisconsin. Michigan State blew a two-goal lead before falling to the Badgers in overtime.
That loss paved the way for Martone to sign his entry level contract with the Flyers, allowing him to finish out the 2025-26 season with the NHL club. The 19-year-old will now be joining the team on their late post-season push and should be a pivotal piece to the puzzle right away.
The Peterborough, Ontario native spent the previous 3 seasons with the Brampton/Mississauga Steelheads before committing to Michigan State University in 2025. After a 37-goal and 98-point season during his draft year, Martone added 25 goals and 49 points in just 34 games in the NCAA.
Despite finishing 2nd in goals and 4th in points, Martone was not one of the finalists for the prestigious Hobey Baker Award, which is given out to the best men’s collegiate hockey player. Nevertheless, it shouldn’t put a damper on what was a fantastic draft+1 season, that also saw him captain Team Canada at the World Junior Championship.
While he wasn’t able to go all the way for Michigan State, Martone will be joining the red-hot Flyers who have gone 8-2-1 over their last 11 games, including last night’s pivotal 5-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings.
Where Martone fits into the equation remains to be seen, especially with the top-6 playing very well recently. Denver Barkey has been playing next Trevor Zegras and Owen Tippett, whereas Alex Bump has seen the ice with Travis Konecny and Christian Dvorak.
If head coach Rick Tocchet doesn’t want to mess with his top-6, he could look to put Martone next to Noah Cates and Matvei Michkov, which would drop Carl Grundström to the fourth line – or the press box with how well the fourth line has looked in recent games.
Regardless, it’s truly exciting times for Flyers fans, who will get to see Martone in action just months after having been drafted by the team. As one of the main building blocks for the future, look for the 6’3” winger to make his mark in high stakes games before officially taking rookie status in 2026-27.
