Confirmed with Link: Flyers sign F Danick Martel (March 10, 2015)

[Elitersson]

Just watched this guy at the Canadian Ball Hockey A National Championships this past week.

He was the best player on his team, which won the tournament. Had a hat-trick in the first period of the gold medal game and all 3 goals were high skill plays. Showed elite footspeed. Great shot release and playmaking isnt too bad either.

 

[Curufinwe]

I wonder if Mase played this summer. In 2014 he broke a finger playing ball hockey.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...lyers-steve-mason-breaks-finger-nhl/13437843/

 

[FLYguy3911]

Wonder who is better Maroon or Martel?

 

[Curufinwe]

It would be cool to see. Mase has eight inches on him, but Martel would be a lot faster.

Ball hockey would have been right up my alley when I was younger, since I can't skate even a little bit.

 

[Chuck Downie]

Leading the AHL in goals with 13 in 13 games, 5 up on second place. Seems like he "gets it" in his 3rd AHL season.

https://theahl.com/stats/player/5940/57/danick-martel

Will be interesting to see if he gets a call up this season.

 

[Winston Wolf]

Unfortunately, I would bet my house on him not getting a shot.

To clarify, by "shot" I mean playing real minutes with actual players that could complement his skill set. There may be a small possibility of him playing six minutes a night with Weise and Lehtera, though.

 

[BillDineen]

#freeMartel. If he was a few inches taller, everyone would be clamoring to have him up right now.

 

[Rebels57]

Im sure hes thrilled he signed with an organization that doesnt believe in merit promotions and overvalues atrocious veterans.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Martel definitely deserves more of a shot than f***ing Lehtera and certainly over Read.

 

[whitstifier]

#freeMartel. If he was a few inches taller, everyone would be clamoring to have him up right now.

Top cheese man. Gotta call him up. Ain't no one on the team know how to pop bottles off net like Danick.

Top C? Stonehands. Top RW? Stonehands? Top LW? Weak ass, breaky wrist, passy-passy Stonehead.

If he were 10 inches taller, Danick would be a horse rider with two double crowns already. Or, maybe a high school teacher. Hockey's just a game to him. He's here to clown tallboys and win rockets. Watch the f*** out Matthews and Finnish Mask. Cher isn't here to wipe away your oaf tears.

@sexyhexy
#flashyourDanICK

 

[Hiesenberg]

Well Danick is more than merry to sign elsewhere when his contract is up. I hope he gets a shot

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Well Danick is more than merry to sign elsewhere when his contract is up. I hope he gets a shot

And Hexy would only have himself to blame. He decides to bring up crappier older players when the young ones are clearly doing more.

 

[Rebels57]

And Hexy would only have himself to blame. He decides to bring up crappier older players when the young ones are clearly doing more.

We almost lost Weal to free agency for this exact reason.

 

[FLYguy3911]

Well Danick is more than merry to sign elsewhere when his contract is up. I hope he gets a shot

Not really. He’ll be an RFA and I doubt they let him walk. If he doesn’t make the Flyers, his best chance will be to get picked up on waivers.

 

[deadhead]

Who did Hextall bring up other than Read, and Martel had just started his hot streak.
Weise and Lehtera were already on the roster
Nor had Martel done anything before this season that suggested he was a NHL caliber player.
The bar is higher for players like Weal and Martel because their only potential role is to score on a top 9 line.

Martel
BD 12/12/94
Juniors, 40, 60, 102
2015-16 67 22-15 37 -11
2016-17 60 20-20 40 +15

Weal
BD 4/15/92
Juniors 102, 96, 116
2012-13 63 15-18 33 +8
2013-14 76 23-47 70 +28
2014-15 73 20-49 69 +11
2015-16 14 NHL games 0-0 0
2016-17 43 15-32 47 +11

At the same age, Weal outplayed Martel by a wide margin in both juniors and the AHL, yet he flopped his first shot at the NHL and needed another year to make the jump.
So there was no reason for Hextall to feel any need to "rush" Martel.

 

[Curufinwe]

Well Danick is more than merry to sign elsewhere when his contract is up. I hope he gets a shot

He's a RFA and he'll definitely be qualified, so he can't sign anywhere else.

https://www.capfriendly.com/players/danick-martel

 

[BillDineen]

"The Flyers already have two undersized but skilled wingers among their top nine forwards: Travis Konecny and Jordan Weal. It would be hard to add the 5-foot-8 Martel into the equation without the top 9 becoming way too undersized. "

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=88688

Tampa is really struggling adding Gourde and Point along with Johnson.

 

[Curufinwe]

Gourde is an interesting comparison since he has just now become an NHL regular and turns 26 next month.

When he was Martel's age he scored 57 points in 76 AHL games.

 

[Magua]

Gourde's profile is actually quite similar to Martel.

 

[deadhead]

Weal and Gourde had 4 AHL seasons before breaking into the NHL, Martel is in his 3rd.

Wonder if this simply reflects that smaller players who lack elite talent have to physically mature and learn the "little tricks" to handle NHL size and speed?

 

[BernieParent]

Top cheese man. Gotta call him up. Ain't no one on the team know how to pop bottles off net like Danick.

Top C? Stonehands. Top RW? Stonehands? Top LW? Weak ass, breaky wrist, passy-passy Stonehead.

If he were 10 inches taller, Danick would be a horse rider with two double crowns already. Or, maybe a high school teacher. Hockey's just a game to him. He's here to clown tallboys and win rockets. Watch the **** out Matthews and Finnish Mask. Cher isn't here to wipe away your oaf tears.

@sexyhexy
#flashyourDanICK

Just a friendly question: do you have a designated driver at your disposal?

 

[Magua]

Weal and Gourde had 4 AHL seasons before breaking into the NHL, Martel is in his 3rd.

Wonder if this simply reflects that smaller players who lack elite talent have to physically mature and learn the "little tricks" to handle NHL size and speed?

No, deady bear, it means that they are simply never given the fair shake they deserve and are shortchanged as just very good, tweener level AHLers, no matter how well they do. Some indeed are just that, but even the ones like Weal and so on get lumped in with the label. There are career AHLers of all shapes and sizes, be they Martel or McDonald sized. It's just very hard to get an opportunity when you're undersized, and you usually only have the one chance. Being undrafted is certainly a factor, but I think we are seeing more of these kids get drafted now.

 

[Striiker]

Weal and Gourde had 4 AHL seasons before breaking into the NHL, Martel is in his 3rd.

Wonder if this simply reflects that smaller players who lack elite talent have to physically mature and learn the "little tricks" to handle NHL size and speed?

He's not going to learn to handle NHL size and speed in the AHL.

When players get to the NHL and are asked what the biggest difference is between the AHL and NHL, that's the thing they mention. The only way to adapt to that is to play against it.

 

[Curufinwe]

Tyler Johnson, who just signed a 7 year extension at $5m AAV, has 3 ESP in 15 games.

Gourde's path to the NHL was an extra tough one. After finishing Junior, the Sharks only gave him an one year AHL contract and demoted him to the ECHL for part of it. Then he got no AHL offers in the summer of 2013 and hard to start his second pro season in the ECHL. The Sharks then gave him a 25 game AHL contract and he scored 24 points, but they let him leave and Tampa finally gave him an ELC in March 2014 when he was already 22 years old.

https://www.rawcharge.com/2017/4/9/...-ahl-echl-syracuse-crunch-worcester-kalamazoo

 

[deadhead]

No, deady bear, it means that they are simply never given the fair shake they deserve and are shortchanged as just very good, tweener level AHLers, no matter how well they do. Some indeed are just that, but even the ones like Weal and so on get lumped in with the label. There are career AHLers of all shapes and sizes, be they Martel or McDonald sized. It's just very hard to get an opportunity when you're undersized, and you usually only have the one chance. Being undrafted is certainly a factor, but I think we are seeing more of these kids get drafted now.

Don't think it's that simple.

If Leier couldn't play on the 4th line he'd be back in the AHL, but his ability to forecheck above his weight class has bought him time, but he still has to show some offensive skills to stick.

One reason Cousins was traded was he was a bad fourth line fit and hadn't shown enough offensive skills to stick in the top 9. If he was a better fourth line player, it would have bought him more time to develop.

Weal got a cameo, didn't produce and went back to the AHL, as a guy who was top 9 or bust, he had to show he can produce offensively from day 1. I think that's the problem for smaller players, they don't have the luxury of playing 8 minutes a night on a checking line until they get acclimated to the NHL. If Hextall brings up Martel, it will be for instant offense, so the pressure will be on him to rack up points.

Raffl has the edge over Lehtera and Weise because he can be productive in a fourth line role whereas they have to score or sit.

On the other hand McDonald is a career AHL player because he can't even win a 4th line role.