The Tampa Bay Lightning have claimed forward Danick Martel off of waivers from the Philadelphia Flyers after he was waived from training camp.
The Tampa Bay Lightning has added another forward to the depth chart. Forward Danick Martel has been claimed off of waivers from the Philadelphia Flyers.
Martel was waived along with several others after a wave of cuts was made from the Flyers training camp. Had he not been claimed by the Lightning, he would have reported to the Flyers AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Martel made his NHL debut with the Flyers last season but didn’t record any points in the four games he played with the big club. With the Phantoms, however, he posted 25 goals and 15 assists for a total of 40 points in 59 games.
His 40 points last season matches his career high in the AHL, but he did it in 11 fewer games due to an injury that also kept him out of the AHL all-star game.
The 23-year-old fits perfectly into the Tampa Bay forward archetype. At 5′ 8″ and 162 pounds, he certainly isn’t the biggest forward on the ice. What he lacks in size he makes up for in speed. Tampa Bay has done very well with this type of player in the past, with some notable examples being Tyler Johnson, Jonathan Marchessault, and of course, Martin St. Louis.
The Flyers signed Martel to a one-year, two-way extension in July, and he will be a free agent again at the end of the season. Provided that he hangs around in Tampa, he could be due for a raise from his current $715,000 deal.
Should the Lightning decide to send him down to the Syracuse Crunch, they will have to wait at least 10 games or 30 days to do so and he would be waiver eligible again. This means Martel will have some guaranteed ice time to prove himself with at the start of the season.
According to Bryan Burns on Twitter, Lightning GM Julien BriseBois already has some high praises for Martel:
#Bolts GM Julien BriseBois on claiming Danick Martel: “He’s a player we’d had on our radar for a while going back to his last year of junior when he was a free agent...He kind of fits our DNA in the sense that he’s really fast, he’s skilled and he’s tenacious."
— Bryan Burns (@BBurnsNHL) September 22, 2018
It will be interesting to see how Martel will fit into the fight for roster spots at the Lightning training camp. The Bolts have plenty of skilled young forwards such as Alex Barré-Boulet, Taylor Raddysh, Otto Somppi, Alexander Volkov, and Boris Katchouk who are already fighting for roster spots. While the addition of Martel may help the Bolts, it takes away a roster spot for one of these promising players.
Per the Tampa Bay Lightning on Twitter, Martel will wear number 61 next season. Welcome to the Tampa Bay Lightning, Danick!