While the Carolina Hurricanes season ended in disappointment, the team had a lot to be proud of. Now in the offseason, tough decisions will be made, and management will work to put the team in a place to succeed next season. In the meantime, we will take a look back at individual players’ seasons and see how they did. For the Carolina Hurricanes offseason grades, today we look at Jordan Martinook.
Carolina Hurricanes Offseason Grade: Jordan Martinook
Jordan Martinook is one of Carolina’s top heart and soul type players. Mostly and third to fourth-line player, he plays with energy and provides a positive voice in the locker room. He will chip in a goal or two here or there but is not really a player leaned on for goal-scoring. After acquiring him from the Arizona Coyotes, the Hurricanes have recognized Martinook’s contributions to the team by making him an alternate captain and resigning him to a three-year contract in 2021. With that said, before this season, the Hurricanes made an interesting decision to waive Martinook. No team claimed him. As one of the hardest workers on the team, Martinook took it in stride and ended up with a fairly decent season compared to expectations coming in.
Jordan Martinook’s Regular Season
Even though Carolina waived Martinook before the season, he would ultimately play in all 82 games. With the departure of Nino Niederreiter in the offseason, Martinook stepped up and was mostly used on the third-line with Jordan Staal and Jesper Fast. That line played the most minutes and games of any Hurricanes line combination and the most games together of any forward line in the league. They would torment other teams with their heavy forecheck and puck possession. They not only led the Hurricanes, but the entire league in expected goals for forward lines playing 100 minutes with 41.5. Individually, Martinook had 20.5 expected goals for but a fairly low conversion rate and goal differential. Considering that the third line took some of the most difficult matchups, this is not as shocking as it seems.
On the score sheet, Martinook finished the year with 13 goals and 21 points. His 34 points was a career high for Martinook. His point total put him in line with fellow linemate Staal as well as other forwards who played in 82 games such as Brandon Tanev and Zach Parise. Overall, Martinook actually had a decent season for a third line player. Especially considering Carolina waived him early on. Again, the intangibles that Martinook bring are a fairly valuable piece to the team. Sometimes Martinook was a guy to look at as an example of never taking a shift off and playing with heart. Sure, his goal-scoring is not exceptional, but it also was not expected to be.
Jordan Martinook’s Playoffs
Even if Jordan Martinook hadn’t played a single regular season game, his playoff performance, specifically in the second round, was worth a bump in this Carolina Hurricanes offseason grade. In Round One, Martinook was doing what he was supposed to but not necessarily showing up on the score sheet. Then Round Two against the New Jersey Devils started. Martinook absolutely exploded with four consecutive multi-point games. This was a franchise record. His nine points in the Second Round also made him the third player in NHL history to score nine or more points in a playoff round following zero in a previous round that postseason. He was at the top of the list for points in the Second Round of the playoffs.
Martinook finished the playoffs with three goals and nine assists. He achieved career bests in goals, assists and points. His 12 points tied the team lead with Sebastian Aho for the playoffs. He also led the team in primary assists with seven. While the advanced analytics were not anything special for Martinook, he was able to finish at the top of the team in high danger unblocked shot attempts too, which was largely driven by his Second-Round explosion. Overall, he came back down to earth in the Eastern Conference Finals but so did the rest of the team.
Much like the regular season, the lines Martinook was on were generally strong in expected goals, but he did not stick with the Staal/Fast combination as much, also playing with Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Martin Necas in various combinations too. Martinook was consistently the hard working, heart of the team who exceeded expectation in the Second Round by a fairly wide margin.
The Verdict
Most of what we saw of Jordan Martinook this season was a slight uptick from general expectations. After he was waived, no one really knew how he would respond. To his credit, he came back and filled in on a strong third-line and achieved his best regular season points total. This carried over to the playoffs by achieving career bests in all categories. Even though it was largely Martinook’s Second Round, no one realistically saw him being the point producer for Carolina. Martinook’s contract will expire after next season. With so many other contracts to assess, the Hurricanes may have to make a tough decision on Martinook. There’s no question that he gives everything to the team, and the community for that matter. If a team friendly deal is worked out you could see him returning in a depth role but this is to be seen.
Grade: B+
Main Photo: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
