About Last Season: Jordan Martinook Performance Review and Grade

Jordan Martinook: 2020-21 By the Numbers

• Age: 29
• NHL seasons: 7
• Scoring: 4 goals, 9 assists, 13 points in 44 games
• Advanced stats: 51.9% CF, 50.3% SCF, 47.1% GF, 48.9% xG
• Average TOI: 11:24 EV, 0:04 PP, 1:16 PK
• Contract: Signed new 3-year contract through 2023-24, AAV $1.8 million

At his end of season press availability on June 11, Jordan Martinook certainly looked for all the world like a man whose time had run out on his run with the Carolina Hurricanes. With new contracts coming down the pike, including one for a fellow with whom Martinook is rather notably linked, it seemed like there wasn’t going to be enough left in the piggy bank for the alternate captain whose contribution to a team is largely found in the realm of intangibles.

But then Dougie Hamilton went elsewhere, and the Hurricanes replaced him with the hockey equivalent of four quarters hoping to make a dollar, and lo and behold, all of a sudden there’s Martinook on the opening day of free agency re-upping for three more years at a slightly lower cap hit. Not a bad bit of business, right?

By now the Hurricanes know what they’re going to get from Martinook. He’s remarkably consistent for what little scoring he provides, always clocking in just under a point every third game or so. (How consistent? He’s been between .29 and .32 points per game every single full season of his career, save one: his last year in Arizona.) More importantly, he’s the resident heart-on-sleeve guy of the locker room, always quick with a quip yet remarkably insightful and, in some cases, blunt in his analysis of his team’s performance.

And that’s to say nothing of his connection with the community. Martinook’s zaniness (BARNAUL, RUSSIAAAAAA!!!) masks a family man, a newly-minted father of two who has a touch with people that is rare in today’s NHL. Just ask the Izzos, whose daughter Emma is Martinook’s number-one fan and is a small piece of what Martinook means to Hurricanes fans, and more importantly, what they mean to him.

Martinook could well wind up to this generation of Hurricanes the same type of player as Craig Adams was a decade and a half ago: a constant presence, a useful fourth liner that can jump up in a pinch on occasion, a locker room leader and a guy about whom literally no one has a bad word. If he’s willing to continue plugging along on reasonable contracts, there’s no reason Martinook shouldn’t remain a Hurricane for many years to come, although that $2.7 million salary in 2023-24 might make the bean-counters cringe a bit.

But then, the bean-counters may not have ever signed him in the first place, and every successful team needs a Jordan Martinook. The Hurricanes could have gone cheap and signed an outsider or promoted from within to fill that slot, but they’d have likely just spent the same money regardless, and if you’re going to do that, why not just hang onto the genuine article?