Flyers, Porter Martone to have conversation about playing in NCAA

There is a big decision looming for the Philadelphia Flyers top prospect — play college hockey next season or try to make the NHL.

There is a big decision looming for top Philadelphia Flyers prospect Porter Martone, and him and the team are scheduled to have a conversation regarding this decision in the next couple of weeks.

We are in a new era of prospect development for this sport. With the new agreement between the CHL and NCAA, where players no longer have to pick a lane when they’re 15 years old and can now switch between the two major North American development leagues before players turn pro. As long as a player is not signed to an NHL team, they can go between college hockey and Canadian juniors if they so please.

This is provides a major stepping stone for some players and one of the key players that will need to make a decision is Flyers first-round pick Porter Martone.

The 18-year-old winger was simply one of the best players in the OHL and arguably the entire CHL last season for the Brampton Steelheads. Even before he was drafted, he put up a nearly triple-digit point total and while other players produced just as much, Martone was miles ahead of those peers physically.

Given that level of success and draft pedigree after the Flyers selected him with the sixth overall draft pick last month, multiple schools are clamoring for Martone to commit to them and take that next step in his hockey development. Despite that, the player himself has recently said that his goal is to make it to the NHL for next season.

While that is absolutely the mindset you want your top prospect to have, it gets a little bit tricky. There is no denying that in a vacuum, Martone should play in college next season. He is too good to return to the OHL but is not one of those franchise-changing talents that can waltz right into the NHL and make an impact. It’s the perfect middle ground — a stepping stone to play against older players and face a higher level of competition before signing with the Flyers potentially at the end of next season.

Therefore, it’s going to be a conversation.

“Martone obviously has all kinds of offers,” Flyers assistant general manager Brent Flahr said Sunday. “He wants to play in the NHL and that’s a discussion we’ll have with his agent. As much as we want him to play, we have to make sure we do what’s best for him. We’ll figure that out in the coming weeks and see what he wants to do, and go from there.”

While it won’t be a drastic decision one way or the other, and Martone will still likely turn into a very good NHL player at the end of the day, it is still fairly important what path he chooses to go down for next season.

Heading to college hockey is the most stable but it also prevents Martone from getting the experience of an NHL training camp this fall, as he would be ineligible to participate and the next time we could see him in Flyers colors would have to wait until next spring when he inevitably signs his NHL contract after his college season ends.

Trying his best to make the NHL is riskier and could lead him to playing in a not-so-great development environment. If Martone makes the Flyers full-time, that’s great. It might not be ideal for those who would rather see prospects gradually climb the proverbial hockey ladder, but it would at least be exciting. But regardless, if Martone decided to go down this path, he would have to sign his NHL entry-level contract and that would prevent him from playing college hockey at all.

So, with his shiny new contract, if Martone doesn’t make the Flyers or just plays a few games like Jett Luchanko did at the start of last season, that means he has to go back to the OHL’s Brampton Steelheads. Unfortunately, that would be going back to a Steelheads team that has been torn apart by either graduating players or prospects heading to college hockey.

All seven of the top scorers on last year’s Steelheads squad except Martone, are not returning next season. Plus, they just lost their goaltender Jack Ivankovic to the University of Michigan. And to make this much more dramatic, because of the new NCAA-CHL agreement taking place, this is a weakened OHL — a junior league that now has even fewer top prospects because some of them are now playing NCAA hockey instead.

That doesn’t feel like a great environment for Martone to really further his game and get better at the areas of the game he needs to improve. It would just be letting him plateau but be a year older when he tries to make the NHL as a full-time player and being slightly more comfortable with it.

So, all of that is to say that it would make sense if the Flyers are going to try to push Martone over to college hockey, even if the player seems passionate about trying to play in NHL games as soon as possible.

Luckily, we’re dealing with a very mature prospect. Someone who has captained multiple teams and is miles ahead in between the ears compared to other past prospects.

“To see his maturity, how he handles himself around the group and even around you guys,” Flahr said to the media. “He’s a pretty comfortable kid. I think once he gets around NHL players he’s going to stand out even more. I think he’s a player that’s always looking around, learning. The pace of his game is going to have to pick up, but you see the hands, the vision, the ability to make plays very few guys even on our big team can make. There’s a process, he’s a young guy, but we’ll see what he can do.”