April 17, 2026
A younger Porter Martone would be losing his mind right now.
To be playing with the Flyers, in the Stanley Cup Playoffs soon enough, and up against their greatest rivals in Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins?
"I think it'd be very surreal. I think he'd be pretty amped up," Martone said, thinking back to the kid who grew up a Flyers fans in Peterborough, Ontario, with a Claude Giroux poster in his basement and all. "I wouldn't honestly believe it."
He doesn't have to, though. It's reality, and it's the dream.
Drafted by the Flyers sixth overall back in June, Martone played a freshman collegiate season at Michigan State, then signed late last month to hop right into the team's final push after a playoff spot.
And the script couldn't have been written up any better.
In so many ways, the 19-year-old was exactly what the Flyers needed, and exactly what fans had been waiting months for ever since his name was called to Philadelphia on the draft stage.
He was the big body who was going to fight to the front of the opposing net and stay there. He was the talented winger with a booming shot, who was going to streak down the wall with the puck and always be looking to shoot it. And he was one of the key pieces in the Flyers' rebuild who was hopefully going to tip the scales toward being competitive again.
He did.
Martone's first NHL goal was the major overtime winner against the Bruins on April 5, with his feet planted right in front of the Boston net.
He went on to put up four goals and six assists for 10 points through the nine games he was around for, which, by the end, helped to have the Flyers on the ice celebrating their first postseason appearance in six years, and all with Xfinity Mobile Arena filled up and roaring again.
Yeah, that would be surreal to a young Flyers fan whose favorite players included Giroux and Wayne Simmonds back in the day, like Martone said of the kid he used to be. It'd be a dream.
But now, it's his reality.
Porter Martone jumped right into the Flyers' lineup and put up 10 points through nine games to close out the regular season.
Martone seems pretty calm about it these days, and plays that way, too, even though things have been changing for him pretty quickly.
He still only just got to the NHL, and admitted that the pace is faster and that the plays get executed much cleaner.
He also jumped right into a playoff push that was moving a mile a minute, where every game had "must-win" status for over a month, and is now no sooner rolling straight into a first-round series that Philadelphia has waited years to finally have in front of it again.
But Martone credited the team around him, particularly his veteran linemates Christian Dvorak and Travis Konecny, for helping him get settled into the pro life, along with the season's sprint to the finish, fast.
He also leaned on the strengths of his game – his shot, his strength, and his anticipation (i.e. Hockey IQ) – with the confidence that they could make an impact in the NHL.
For the Flyers, they certainly did, and just in time.
Martone is part of why the team and the city are gearing up for playoff hockey again, and part of why the Flyers should have every reason to go toe-to-toe with the Penguins when the first-round series begins Saturday night in Pittsburgh.
The leap into the pros happened fast, sure, and so did the Flyers' own collective leap into the playoffs. But even so, Martone has been taking it all as it comes, and finding a way to make a difference while he's at it.
"I think a big thing is, my dad always said to me, 'Just be where your feet are,'" Martone said. "That's what I tried to focus on this year, and when I got here to Philadelphia, just continue to do that.
"I have this ability to play hockey, and I think for me, I just gotta take advantage of that and make other people's lives around me better.
"I think for me, that's just being who I am, and not changing who I am. So that's just coming in every day, being very confident, and just being happy while doing it."
After all, this is a dream for Martone.
Better, even. It's reality.
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