The College Hockey Takeover Continues With 6th Overall Pick Porter Martone Heading To Michigan State
Michael Miller/ISI Photos. Getty Images.20 years ago, the clear path for anybody trying to become a star in the National Hockey League was to play junior hockey in Canada. You think back to some great Americans who ended up spending their draft year north of the border. Guys like Patrick Kane with the London Knights. Bobby Ryan with the Owen Sound Attack. Rob Schremp spent years in the OHL. Even guys as recently as Alex DeBrincat played alongside of Connor McDavid with the Erie Otters.
The OHL was the destination, and college hockey was always a backup plan.
Fast forward to 2025, and college hockey is absolutely shit kicking the CHL in terms of rounding up the most future superstar talent. It's not just Americans staying home to play college hockey anymore. These colleges are snatching up some of the best that Canada has to offer. Macklin Celebrini spending a year at BU before becoming the 1st overall pick with the San Jose Sharks. Gavin McKenna is the next "generational" superstar in hockey, and he'll be spending next season at Penn State before becoming the 1st overall pick in the 2026 Draft.
He'll be joined at Penn State with Jackson Smith, who was just drafted 14th overall by the Columbus Blue Jackets.
And now Porter Martone will be heading to Michigan State. The captain of the Brampton Steelheads. He played for Canada at the World Juniors. He played for Canada at the World Championships. He has every reason to continue playing in the OHL if he doesn't crack the Flyers roster this year out of his rookie camp. But college hockey will not stop until the CHL is dead. College hockey now has the money to convince all these guys to come over, and eventually it's where all of the talent will be.
Obviously college hockey has always been huge in the Boston area, and up around Minnesota. There are a few pockets of the country where college hockey has been king. But it's never really caught on around the rest of the country. That's because for the longest time, college hockey has been dominated by a bunch of 24-year-olds who already played a few years of junior hockey before coming in as 21-year-old freshmen. It was dominated by guys who are all hoping to become the next big undrafted free agent.
But now we're getting to a point where you could watch college hockey on any night and see a top-10 NHL draft pick on the ice. All the future stars in the league will be making a few hundred thousand dollars playing college hockey, and the skill level is going to keep skyrocketing. Maybe your favorite NHL team sucks right now and just bums you out every time you watch them. Now you can just watch college puck instead. Maybe a few broadcasting networks will take notice and give us a few big nationally televised games every week.
The CHL had a great run. But their time is done. It's over.