Martone a rising sensation
He has a family link to Sault Ste. Marie and has become a clear cut playing sensation — and both a fan and media favourite — beginning late in the ’25-26 National Hockey League regular season and now into the playoffs. He is 19-year old Porter Martone and he has burst onto the NHL scene like few others in a long time.
Joining the Philadelphia Flyers late in the ’25-26 regular season from the Michigan State Spartans, Martone quickly adapted to the pace and physicality of the NHL. He scored four goals, six assists, 10 points in nine regular season games and helped to propel the Flyers to an improbable playoff spot. Martone has continued to be a productive factor for the Flyers in the playoffs and has, as previously stated, become a fan and media favourite in the City of Brotherly Love.
Philadelphia took the 6 foot 3, 210 pound power forward with an October 26, 2006 birth date in the first round, sixth overall, at the 2025 NHL Draft from the Brampton Steelheads of the Ontario Hockey League.
Martone was nothing short of an impact player through three full seasons in the OHL, first with the Sarnia Sting, then with the Steelheads. Regular season and playoffs included, Martone skated in 195 OHL games and had 96 goals, 129 assists, 225 points and 233 minutes in penalties before going the Division 1, National Collegiate Athletic Association route and signing with Michigan State ahead of the ’25-26 season. He scored 25 goals, 25 assists, 50 points in 35 games with Michigan State and then joined Philadelphia in time for its late season playoff push.
Quite a ride it has been for young Martone, who also played for Team Canada — and was its captain — at the ’25-26 World Junior Hockey Championships, scoring six goals, three assists, nine points.
While Martone is from Peterborough and played much of his minor hockey in his hometown, he has a deep rooted Sault Ste. Marie side to him.
He is the son of Sault Ste. Marie native Mike Martone, a former hard rock, OHL defenseman with the Peterborough Petes. The elder Martone was drafted by the Petes from AAA midget Soo Legion in the third round of the 1994 OHL priority selections draft.
Not only did old man Martone go on to captain the Petes but he netted one of the most important goals in franchise history when, on May 5, 1996, he scored the winning goal in overtime to give Peterborough a stunning 8-7 victory over the favoured Guelph Storm in Game 7 of the OHL championship series.
The elder Martone later played four years at the minor pro level after being a fourth round NHL draft pick of the Buffalo Sabres. He then played at St. Francis Xavier University, became a school teacher, and settled down to raise a family in Peterborough, which is the hometown of his wife, Angela.
Back to the younger Martone, his meteoric rise to NHL stardom is one of the better stories to come along in the game in quite a spell. And as an added touch, when he was a youngster, his favourite NHL team was — you guessed it — the Philadelphia Flyers.
photo of Porter Martone by the Associated Press
