Martin, who recorded one assist and averaged 11:25 of ice time over those three games with the Preds, including his NHL debut on Opening Night, gained a wealth of knowledge having started the season alongside veterans Filip Forsberg and Ryan O\u2019Reilly. He also got a taste of life on the road in the NHL as he traveled with the team to Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and Winnipeg last week through his home country.<\/p>\n
Those experiences as an 18-year-old are invaluable at this stage of his career, but Martin was also honest about his situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe game takes a lot out of you, and he said that even one of the biggest things is how hard you have to play, that you cannot take a breath,\u201d Trotz said of his conversations with Martin. \u201cIn junior, once in a while he can take a breath, and he says you can’t take a breath here, because [the opposition will] make you pay. [The NHL is] a very unforgiving League, and so the experience of that, and him even saying that, and adjusting his game – like, you didn’t see him running through guys that were 45 pounds heavier than him or anything like that. He adjusted his game to control guys positionally, all that. So, he’s got a good stick. There’s lots of good things with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trotz now expects Martin to return to the OHL and show exactly why the Preds elected him fifth overall last June to begin with. Martin\u2019s ability with the puck, combined with his physicality and decision making away from the play give him an advantage not many others his age possess.<\/p>\n
Combine that with the chance to be a leader – and perhaps the captain – of the Greyhounds this season, and the opportunity for Martin is plentiful. Now, he\u2019s just got to take advantage with the Preds assisting his development from afar.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s sort of the whole package,\u201d Trotz said. \u201cThis is a player that is not afraid of the moment. He\u2019s not afraid of going up against top guys. Some guys are, but just like Brady, you want players to thrive and not just survive\u2026 He\u2019s going to have to get bigger and stronger and all those things, but the mind of the game, how he thinks the game, all that is in a really good place. So, we’re really excited. I’m excited for him. He\u2019s going to be a core player for us for a long time, and he’s got the right DNA. He’s got a great work ethic, as we all know. I think he’s a very humble kid and a realistic kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martin\u2019s first few weeks in the NHL was just a taste of what\u2019s to come. And when the day does arrive for him to be in Nashville on a full-time basis? Well, that\u2019s when the real fun will start.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes young players see themselves in different ways, but he\u2019s very grounded and understands what he needs to do and where he wants to go,\u201d Trotz said. \u201cHe’s got an inner confidence and a fire that is undeniable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Martin, who recorded one assist and averaged 11:25 of ice time over those three games with the Preds,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-233432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}