Porter Martone's decision to go to Michigan State is 'a big step' toward a long future with the Flyers

At the draft and at development camp earlier in the summer, Porter Martone said his goal was to crack the Flyers' opening night roster.

The sixth overall pick just isn't there yet, though.

He realizes he still has a bit of work to do.

Martone committed to play college hockey at Michigan State last week , leaving the Canadian junior ranks in Brampton for the faster, stronger competition in the NCAA as the next phase in his development.

Ideally, the 18-year-old wing prospect would still like to be NHL-ready right now , but after talking it over with his camp and the Flyers, he said the decision to head to Michigan State for at least a season was one made for the long haul of his future the Flyers' too.

"For me, obviously, if I do get a chance to go to training camp and try to make the NHL, [the Flyers were] going to support that," Martone, who is in Minnesota this week to skate for Team Canada at the World Junior Summer Showcase, told FloHockey and the assembled press of his call to go to college .

" But at the same time, I really sat down and thought with my camp, and I did include the Flyers as well, 'What's going to make me the best player 5-10 years down the road when the Flyers are trying to win a Stanley Cup?' "So I think this is going to be a big step for me.

It's gonna be different.

It's a very tough decision to leave the CHL and leave Brampton, but in the end, I think this is the next step for my hockey journey." He won't be alone.

Martone is joining a strengthening Michigan State program that already has fellow Flyers prospect and 2025 second-round pick Shane Vansaghi skating for them.

Cayden Lindstrom, the center who went fourth overall to Columbus in the 2024 draft, is on his way to East Lansing, too.

The Spartans are projected to be a force in college hockey this coming season because of that influx of talent, one capable of chasing after a National Championship, and a team that Flyers fans will undoubtedly be checking in on to see how Martone and Vansaghi are progressing along the way.

"I think it's going to help me develop into a full player," Martone said of a run at Michigan State.

"Get some more time in the gym.

I really like the culture they have there, the coaching staff." "I think they got a really good team already," Martone added at another point.

"I think I'm just going to be able to add to that." Key in Martone's discussion of his decision to go to college was that he said it was made with the Flyers' support.

In isolation, and generally speaking, a top prospect going to college, even under the new CHL to NCAA eligibility rules , wouldn't be anything to raise concern over.

Flyers fans, however, still have the relatively fresh scar of former top prospect Cutter Gauthier inexplicably cutting off contact with the organization, which led to his trade out to Anaheim early last year.

With Martone, though, there doesn't seem to be any chance of something bizarre like that happening again.

As he spoke to the media in Minnesota of his future, the Flyers appeared very much in mind.

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