Game On – Featuring Jon Martin

Sports

WINNIPEG, MB – It’s a gigantic step up the ladder and Jon Martin knows it. There is nothing about professional hockey that is supposed to be easy and Martin has learned quickly that he’s in for the ride of his life.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that eating, sleeping and literally existing to play hockey isn’t fun.

“Oh, its’ been good here, it’s been a lot of fun,” said Martin, who has spent the season with the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda. “It’s pro hockey. My first year was last year and this is a lot different than junior. I learned a lot last year and I’m still learning something new every day but I’m enjoying every minute of it.”

Jonathan (now Jon) Martin was one of those can’t-miss Manitoba kids who was always going to be a hockey player.

He was born in Winnipeg, but grew up in Thunder Bay and started skating when he was four. He arrived back in Winnipeg when he was 11 and immediately signed up to play for the Twins. He moved up to play for the Bantam Monarchs and was drafted by the Kootenay Ice in the seventh round (135th overall) in the WHL Bantam Draft in 2010. He then played a year for the Triple A Midget Wild and played for Team Manitoba at the Canada Winter Games in 2011.

He joined the Ice in 2012 and played three full seasons in Cranbrook before being traded, early in his 20-year-old season, to the Swift Current Broncos. The Broncos were thrilled to get him

“Jon Martin is a winner,” said Broncos coach and general manager Mark Lamb. “He’s a big strong forward that comes to us from a winning organization. We see great leadership abilities and some untapped offensive potential.”

Lamb was dead right about Martin. The big rightwinger had 38 goals and 69 points in 66 games with the Broncos in 2015-16 and although he’d gone

undrafted by every NHL team, the San Jose Sharks liked his size (6-foot-2, 215 pounds) toughness and scoring touch and signed him to an $800,000 free-agent entry level deal. During his first NHL camp, he was sent to the Barracuda and split the 2016-17 season between the Sharks AHL affiliate and their ECHL club, the Allen Americans.

This year, the 22-year-old has been mostly a fourth-line rightwinger with the Barracuda and has four goals and 11 points in his first 41 games this season, However, he did get a bit of a boost when he arrived in Winnipeg last month.

With family and friends in attendance, Barracuda head coach Roy Sommer, started him against the Moose, a nice gesture on Martin’s first trip back to Winnipeg.

“It was nice of the coach to do that,” said Martin with a smile. “My parents, aunts, uncles, my grandparents and a few friends were here today so it was pretty great.”

Martin’s family has been very important to his young hockey career. After all, he moved back to Winnipeg when his engineer father, Wayne, was offered a very good job.

His dad’s profession also helped teach Jon about hard work.

“My dad is an engineer and a project manager,” Jon said with a smile. “He’s been involved with work at the Assiniboine Park Zoo, the airport, the Zoo again. He’s always gotten me some pretty unfortunate construction jobs in the summer. I learned a lot of hard work so that was good.”

The hard work is beginning to pay off. While he’s still trying to find his place as a professional hockey, he’s enjoyed the first year and a half of his experience.

“Absolutely, I’ve loved it,” he said. “You leave home — and I’m a long way from home now — with no more billet family. I had to learn to cook and live on my own. It was a big change. But it’s been a lot of fun. This is a whole different experience for me, but I found I enjoyed living on my own.”

Martin is simply at a point in his hockey life in which he’s just trying to get comfortable with his surroundings. Simply put, he’s learning to be a professional.

“Yeah, I’m just trying to play my best here,” he said. “I just want to get better every day. My job right now is to just work on my game. I’m not thinking too far ahead here. I just want to help the team win. For now, I’m just focusing on getting better.”

“But it’s fun to play here and it’s really exciting to have the opportunity to play pro hockey. We have a young team and we have a lot of good guys. I like it here and I like playing for this team. It’s fun.”

Scott Taylor, Manitoba Post

Photos by James Carey Lauder

Story originally published in Game On magazine, available at arena’s across Winnipeg.