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 at L.A. Live's Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on June 27 and 28. 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 skaters for the 2025 draft. The Steelheads captain is sixth in the OHL with 88 points (30 goals, 58 assists) in 48 games.
Hello hockey fans:
I'd like to begin this month's diary with a few thoughts on the 4 Nations Face-Off.
I think it was amazing to see every player go out there and battle for his country. It was highly skilled hockey, very competitive and fast-paced, so it was amazing. It was cool to see Canada take home that gold medal in overtime in the final, too.
I thought it was pretty crazy to see the three fights in the opening nine seconds of the first Canada-United States game. I think all those players involved aren't necessarily fighters. They're many of the best players in the world, but just for them to have the passion that they bring to their country was really cool. They proved they were willing to do anything to give their team an upper hand.
It was neat to see how the Tkachuk brothers went and handled themselves, and Sam Bennett. I think they all played a crucial part to their team and the success that they brought their team was pretty good.
As a hockey fan, I think it would be cool to see this type of tournament every four years. I think anytime you go best-on-best and play for your country, you know everyone's going to give it their all. It's an honor for everyone to play for their country.
Our team has been playing well of late. We had a couple talks as a team and we've really kind of bonded to the way we want to play and the team we want to be. I think guys are just playing their game right now and it's leading to success as a team and individually.
Personally, I've tried to just kind of stick to the process and to the way I play. I think I've had recent success lately as a result. I want to kind of continue to keep playing a hard game and points will come if I play the right way.
At this point in the season, with 11 regular-season games remaining, I think we just want to reset every game. We want to go into each game with the mindset to win. We want to move as high as we can in the standings heading into the playoffs. I think we're just going to continue to focus on the process and focus on the way we play. Of course, we want a positive outcome, we want the wins, but we're going to focus on playing the right way and hopefully those wins come.
Our coach (James Richmond) wants each of us to just do everything for the team. The better we're playing as a team, the more wins we're going to get, and it's just going to help everyone more, individually. I think we're just going to continue to play the way we have been and hopefully go on a deep playoff run.
That's all for this month. Thanks for reading.
