Flyers select winger Porter Martone with the No. 6 pick in the 2025 NHL draft

ATLANTIC CITY — The chips started falling in front of them on Friday night as five teams forced the Flyers to cross off name after name on their 2025 NHL draft board.

And after all the conjecture and debate, and despite Flyers assistant Brent Flahr saying at his pre-draft press conference that, “We are well aware of our own needs,” — meaning the lack of a high-end center — the Flyers took who they thought was “the best player on our board.”

That player was Brampton Steelheads right winger Porter Martone, who had an additional meeting with the Flyers this week in Voorhees, and talked again with the team’s brass on Friday morning.

“I thought I had some good meetings with Philly. I knew they had some interest in me,” Martone said via Zoom. “At the end of the day, it was going to come down [to], kind of what happened in the draft before Philly picking, and I was very happy and honored to be selected by Philly. I’ve heard nothing but great things about the Flyers organization. I can’t wait to get started.”

» READ MORE: Flyers draft: Orange and Black pass on center in favor of high-scoring power forward Porter Martone

Martone was considered the top winger in this draft class, and with the addition of Trevor Zegras on Monday — and the intention of, at least to start, playing him down the middle — the Flyers went after a goal-scoring machine.

“I think on fit, Martone is a great fit for the Flyers. He adds size to the organization when they need it,” The Athletic’s NHL draft analyst Scott Wheeler told The Inquirer at the NHL scouting combine. “He’s got legit, dynamic skill for a 6-foot-3, 205-pound forward.”

Added FloHockey’s NHL draft analyst Chris Peters: “I think Porter, obviously, the size is a big component. He is a power forward, but he probably could stand to be more physical. He is physical — it’s not that he’s not — it’s just, I think that at his size, he’s going to be forced to play a certain way.

Martone is coming off a 37-goal and 98-point season in 57 regular-season games as the captain for Brampton of the Ontario Hockey League. He tied Jake O’Brien, who was selected at No. 8 by the Seattle Kraken, for seventh on the OHL scoring charts. Martone added nine points (four goals, five assists) in six playoff games.

“But I think that, at his heart, he’s a playmaker. He’s more of a skill, hockey sense, passing, scoring kind of player, which I think is a great thing and why a lot of teams are very interested in him,” said Peters. … I think that he does a lot of things well. Very mature.”

The winger also has some direct ties to the Orange and Black. Martone happened to billet with the same family that Owen Tippett did in junior, and the Flyers forward swings by for dinner sometimes when he’s in the area. Marone was also teammates with Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim, and Tyson Foerster for Canada at the recent World Championships.

“One day, Travis Konecny took me golfing in Sweden,” Martone told The Inquirer in Buffalo at the NHL scouting combine. “Foerster’s very great, kind of around my age, I sat beside him in the room. And then, [Travis] Sanheim, too. They’re all unbelievable people. And one thing I could tell is what it means to be a Flyer. And they really value that. They’re very tight, tight, tight people, and they really enjoy playing for the Flyers.”

» READ MORE: Five things to know about Porter Martone, who has a Flyers poster on his wall and hockey in his blood

And he has been to the Wells Fargo Center.

“I went to Philly, I was 8 years old, for a hockey tournament,” he said back at the start of June. “It was my birthday time, so me and my dad went to the Flyers game. My name was up on the Videotron for my birthday. It was amazing to go see the Flyers and to be able to watch a game at the arena.”

Now his name will be on the scoreboard as a member of the Flyers.

“Looking back on it, you never thought maybe you’d be drafted in the NHL, let alone drafted to the Philadelphia Flyers,” he said on Friday. “I’m pumped and very excited.”