2025 NHL Draft Diary: Porter Martone

Porter Martone, a right wing with Brampton of the Ontario Hockey League, will file a draft diary for NHL.com this season leading up to the 2025 NHL Draft. The 18-year-old (6-foot-3, 208 pounds), who was born in Peterborough, Canada, is No. 4 on NHL Central Scouting's midterm ranking of North American players for the 2025 draft. He is tied for ninth in the OHL with 62 points (22 goals, 40 assists) in 32 games while serving as captain this season.

Hello hockey fans:

I want to begin with some quick thoughts on the IIHF 2025 World Junior Championship. It's always an honor to wear the Maple Leaf on your chest and represent Canada in front of a home crowd and it was pretty cool playing in such a great environment. In the end, though, we left with a sour taste in our mouth after getting knocked out in the quarterfinal round. We were not expecting that. So, for the guys who might be coming back next year, there's definitely some motivation. We can take some lessons from that tournament and kind of put it into next year and hopefully go win a gold medal.

The Connor McDavid OHL Top Prospects Game was a lot of fun. I felt like I had a very strong game. I showed all aspects of what I could bring to the table, game in and game out. I feel like I played a hard physical game, and also showed off my skills. So, it was a very good experience.

I was asked about my fight with (defenseman) Quinn Beauchesne (of Guelph) in the second period of the prospects game … but it was spur of the moment. I'm a competitor and I like to give my team an edge when I need to and that's kind of what happened there. I think we just got into battle and ended up dropping the gloves. I feel like that's a part of my game, being hard to play against. Sometimes I do have to drop the gloves with the way I play, so I felt like I had to do that at that moment.

I try to not pay too much attention to NHL Central Scouting's midterm rankings (released on Jan. 14) but, you're a kid and you kind of see it, so, it was nice to see. The thing is, you can always get better. You could always improve on things. I just want to keep on trying to improve my draft stock and improve the standing of the team I play for.

Right now, we're fourth in the Central Division. At this point, we just need buy-in from everyone in our group. We have the skill to do it. We have the team to do it, so it's buying into our systems and what our coaches are saying. I think if we do that and continue to play to our skill and our ability, we can go on a little run here in the second half.

Personally, I think I just want to keep getting better day in and day out. I'm just trying to help my team win every single night, get us in a good position to have a good spot in the OHL playoffs.

Thanks for reading this month. I'll check back in February.