Porter Martone is finding plenty of success at the U18 World Championships, and more and more he starts to resemble a current young NHLer — Matthew Knies.
Porter Martone is finding plenty of success at the U18 World Championships, and more and more he starts to resemble a current young NHLer — Matthew Knies.
2025 NHL Draft eligible winger Porter Martone is shining on the international stage at the U18 World Championships for Canada, just as he did all season with the Mississauga Steelheads.
The more that Martone continues to develop as a prospect, the more that we can see the pro-level potential in his game. He is beginning to resemble a current young NHLer with his style of play and potential.
That would be Matthew Knies.
Porter Martone and Matthew Knies' games resemble one another on multiple levels, even though Martone is playing junior, and Knies plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the NHL.
Both wingers play a strength-based game where they use their frames to drive the net and gain body position on opponents. In the offensive zone, you can typically find both of them around the net, or doing work below the goal line. Martone and Knies win a lot of puck battles because of the strength in their hands and ability to lift sticks.
When Knies or Martone have the puck, it is a nightmare to take it off of them. They both possess this sense of dominance when the puck is on their sticks, and they won't let it go.
They both stand at 6-foot-3, and have the ability to combine their strength and quickness into a power forward/playmaking play style.
Adding onto that, both wingers have elite hands and the ability to create in close-quarters around the net. We have seen both Martone and Knies score a lot of their goals around the front of the net, whether they manipulate the goalie with their hands in tight or gain body position to tap in a rebound or deflection.
Not to mention, both can definitely play with a physical edge and get under the skins of their opponents.
Martone and Knies can both play and be relied upon in their own zone — though Martone has more development to do in that area as a seventeen-year-old.
They both play very mature games for their ages. This is why Knies has transitioned so seamlessly to the NHL level, and Martone will be the same way.
Matthew Knies was a second round pick by Toronto in his NHL Draft year, and clearly he should have gone much higher. Martone is already being discussed as a top ten pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, and something tells me that not many teams will let him slip by.
Both players are doing big things in the hockey world — on two completely different scales. Matthew Knies just scored the overtime game-winning goal for the Leafs to survive elimination in Game 5 of the NHL Playoffs, and Porter Martone is helping guide Canada to gold at the U18 World Championships.