Philadelphia Flyers
Porter Martone Is the Calder Favorite, and He Already Played Playoff Hockey
Most rookies arrive in October as a question. Philadelphia’s arrived last spring and answered a fair amount of it.
Porter Martone joined the Flyers for their 2025-26 playoff push and scored four goals and 10 points in nine regular-season games, then added two goals and five points in 10 playoff games. He is 19 years old, and he enters this season as the preseason favorite to win the Calder Trophy.
What he did to get here
Martone was taken sixth overall in 2025 and spent last season at Michigan State, where he recorded 25 goals and 25 assists in 35 games. That’s a 1.43 points-per-game rate — third in the country behind Ethan Wyttenbach at 1.48 and Gavin McKenna at 1.46, the latter of whom went first overall in this year’s draft.
Then he skipped the usual acclimation period entirely. Fifteen points in 19 NHL games including the playoffs, averaging just under 17 minutes of ice time and 2.89 shots on goal per game.
Rick Tocchet’s assessment was brief and about as good as a coach’s compliment gets: he’s just a hockey player.
The player
At 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, Martone is the prototype for the modern NHL power forward — hands and playmaking to be a threat in open ice, and the frame to win the areas where space runs out.
That combination is why he projects to have the highest goal-scoring upside in this rookie class. It’s also why the transition to professional hockey looked so short: size and skill together is the profile that survives a jump in competition.
The path to minutes
Travis Konecny will remain Philadelphia’s top right winger. That’s the ceiling on Martone’s deployment and it isn’t much of one — his compete level and offensive ability should earn him plenty of minutes regardless of where the depth chart formally lists him.
Nearly 17 minutes a night as a call-up is the number to hold onto. Rookies who get that kind of usage in a playoff race generally get more of it the following October, and Martone has considerable leeway to grow into a larger role.
Projection. Top-six winger from opening night, power-play usage, and the volume to put up the numbers a Calder campaign requires.
Why he’s ranked ahead of the No. 1 pick
The most interesting thing about Martone’s candidacy is who he’s ahead of.
Gavin McKenna went first overall this year and landed in a better situation — possible second-line minutes with John Tavares and William Nylander in Toronto. He’ll be surrounded by more talent than Martone will.
Martone is ranked first anyway, for two reasons: he’s older, and he already has an NHL sample. A 19-year-old who produced at a point-per-game rate in the league and then did it again in the playoffs has removed a category of doubt that McKenna still has to address.
It’s close. But the head start is real.
The rest of the top of the class
Ivar Stenberg, F — San Jose Sharks. Ranked third, and a player some evaluators believe was the best prospect in the 2026 draft. San Jose traded William Eklund to Ottawa for the ninth overall pick, opening a second-line role for the 18-year-old.
Anton Frondell and Roman Kantserov, F — Chicago Blackhawks. The only pair of teammates in the top five, ranked fourth and fifth. Frondell averaged 17:42 in 12 NHL games last season; Kantserov became the youngest player in KHL history to reach 60 points. Connor Bedard’s shoulder surgery keeps him out until November, which hands both of them early responsibility.
Cole Hutson and Ilya Protas, F/D — Washington Capitals. Two more Metro Division rookies in the top ten, at seventh and ninth. Both would rank higher if Washington hadn’t spent the summer adding Jordan Kyrou and Alex Tuch in front of them.
What would actually decide it
Martone’s shot volume. Nearly three shots a game as a rookie call-up, in limited minutes, is the leading indicator for the goal totals a Calder winner needs.
If that rate holds across a full season with a larger role, the award is his to lose. The competition — McKenna’s linemates, Chicago’s pair, Washington’s depth problem — is all situational. Martone’s case is about the player.
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