Martone, Hagens hope draft-year duel leads to World Juniors

The World Junior Summer Showcase will wrap up on Saturday with Canada and the United States renewing their rivalry in Plymouth, Mich. The game features two of the top prospects available in the 2025 NHL Draft: Canada's Porter Martone and USA's James Hagens. Both have made it a goal to go first overall next June. 

"I want to be the best player in the draft," Porter Martone, a winger with the Brampton Steelheads, declared. "I want to go out there and have a really good year, and try to win a championship with Brampton and hopefully make the World Junior team at Christmas, and if all that works out it will lead up to a good draft day."

But Martone quickly points out there are a lot of impressive contenders at the top of the draft class. He mentions Hagens by name. 

"To see those guys that have gone first, it's a dream come true," said Hagens, a 17-year-old centre, who is off to Boston College this fall. "It's something you work for your whole life and to be able to have that pay off, it would be something really special."

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Martone is coming off an impressive 71-point season in the Ontario Hockey League. He also piled up 17 points in seven games to help Canada win gold at the under-18 World Championship. 

The 6-foot-3, 196-pounder is feeling faster and stronger as he gets set for the biggest season of his life. 

"I always say before games I want to go out there and dominate," Martone revealed. "So, I want to go out there and dominate even more, maybe hold onto the puck a bit longer, and make sure I'm making the right plays. If I do that everything should work out."

Martone brings an edge to the arena. He considers Florida Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk and Edmonton Oilers winger Corey Perry to be role models. 

"I'm a 200-foot player who likes to play hard and can definitely create some offence," he said. "I feel like when I'm playing hard and getting into other team's head and just getting to the net that's when I play my best."

The 17-year-old from Peterborough, Ont., also brings a lot off the ice. Martone served as Canada's captain at the under-18 World Championship. 

"I like to be a good teammate as well and just always make sure everyone around me is feeling OK," he said. 

"He's a great leader," confirmed Owen Sound Attack goalie Carter George. "I had him at the Hlinka Gretzy Cup and U-18s and he was nothing but a great captain out there. His leadership and his personality in the room was just awesome and guys are just attracted to him."

Martone is mature beyond his years, which should allow him to navigate a pressure-packed season with scouts and media keeping close tabs on his progress. 

"I like to showcase myself to all the fans and all the scouts," he said. 

"He'll handle it very well," George predicts. "He's good with the media and all that. He can handle the pressure. I mean, he's played very well for us in important games at U-18s and Hlinka and that sort of thing ... I think he'll have a pretty special year." 

The year will be even more special if Martone is able to crack Canada's roster at the World Juniors in Ottawa. TSN director of scouting Craig Button thinks he has a great chance. 

"Porter is a player that can do so many different things for you," Button notes. "When he went to the U-18 tournament in 2023 he played deeper down the lineup, killed penalties, and he just got better during the course of the tournament. In 2024, he leads the team as captain to the gold medal and he's a front-line player. In the OHL he's a front-line player. He's a driver. I don't think you ever have to worry about Porter Martone. If you ask him to be a fourth-line grinding winger, he'll do that. If you ask him to play on the power play, he'll do that. I just think that he's too good and too impactful not to be on this team. We know it's a 19-year-old tournament but Porter Martone has some of those things that take away that birth certificate and allows him to be that impact player. I don't have any question that he can be a really good, important player for Team Canada."

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Hagens led the USA Hockey National Team Development Program under-18 squad with 102 points in 58 games last season. He was so impressive that he almost made it to the World Juniors as a double under-ager. Now, he projects to be a key player in Ottawa. 

"I think just adding size, strength, physical maturity to his game [helps]," Team USA head coach David Carle said. "The edges, the vision, the puck skills, all those things are just further accentuated because of the addition of his physical maturation."

Hagens is coming off a MVP performance for Team USA at the under-18 World Championship in Finland where he led the tournament with 22 points, which broke Nikita Kucherov's all-time tournament points record. 

"I like to be able to play both ends of the ice," he said. "I like the skating aspect and being able to make plays as well. I feel like I try to look for that extra guy. I try to make a play when you're in that tight space."

Hagens, who stands 5-foot-10, 172 pounds, lists Patrick Kane and Jack Hughes as his hockey role models. 

"They're just so fun to watch," Hagens said. "The things they do on the ice, you're sitting there as a kid and those are guys you look at and you follow."

Hagens is well on his way.  

"He's super creative," said winger Cole Eiserman, who is riding shotgun on a line with Hagens this week. "He can create a lot of turnovers from the opposing team. For me, it's kind of get to my spot. I know I always got to be ready for the pass."

Before joining the US NTDP, Eiserman played with Macklin Celebrini at Shattuck-St. Mary's where the two became good friends. Celebrini just went first overall to the San Jose Sharks and Eiserman, a first-round pick of the New York Islanders in June, senses a similar special quality in Hagens. 

"You step on the ice with them and you have to be ready no matter what," Eiserman noted. "Super creative players that can do whatever on the ice. They have that factor where you got to be ready because they can change the game no matter what." 

Like Martone, Hagens also brings an edge to the proceedings. 

"He's very competitive from what I see," said Carle. "He wants to be good at all the little things. There's a high level of detail and competitiveness to him."

That competitiveness is evident when Hagens is asked about Saturday's showdown with Canada. He's quick to reference the last meeting with Martone and Team Canada in the gold medal game at the under-18 Worlds when Canada scored four unanswered goals to win 6-4.  

"No one forgot about that day," Hagens assured. "You still think about it to this day. It's going to mean a lot getting back on the ice against those guys. I can't wait." 

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Tij Iginla feels the same way. 

"It doesn't matter if it's July or December, January, whenever it is, you know it's going to be an absolute battle," the Kelowna Rockets sniper said. "No one wants to lose those ones. It's a great rivalry, the best rivalry in hockey for sure."

Iginla, who was picked sixth overall by Utah in July, scored twice in Canada's 8-6 win over Finland on Friday while playing on a line with London Knights centre Denver Barkey and third overall pick Beckett Sennecke of the Oshawa Generals. 

"He's super skilled," said Sennecke. "Really good shot, accurate. Pretty shifty laterally. He's a dog on the forecheck so he hunts the puck and that just makes it easier for me to get in there and read off him."

Iginla, the son of Hall of Famer Jarome Iginla, was part of Canada's gold-medal team at the under-18 World Championship and Button expects him to be back in Canada's colours at the World Juniors. 

"I do think he's a lock," Button said. "He's too good. His ability to play with any type of player in any type of situation and drive play and be an impact player is significant. He's just a factor. He's physical. He's hard. He's quick. He's skilled. All the things that allow you to really contribute in a significant want when it comes to a high-level competition."

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Iginla did take a penalty in the third period on Friday. He was one of six Canadian players to be penalized in the final frame, which allowed the Finns to score four straight goals. That didn't sit well with head coach Dave Cameron. 

"Real good first two periods," said Cameron. "I thought we were playing fast. I thought everybody was engaged, did a lot of good things, and then we ran into penalty trouble. We got to learn that if you're ahead in games, shut it down. You can't be taking penalties. Certainly not as many as we took in the third period to let the team back in it."

The veteran bench boss refused to chalk it up to human nature. 

"I hope that's not human nature or we're not going to win the tournament," he said. 

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Team Canada lines in Friday's game against Finland: 

Nadeau - Heidt - Barlow
Iginla - Barkey - Sennecke
Cristall - Beaudoin - Wetsch 
Romani - Luchanko - Collard 

Dickinson - Morin
Price - Gibson 
Burns - Sotheran
MacKinnon

Bjarnason
Ravensbergen

Team Canada practice lines on Friday: 

Ritchie - Cataford - Gauthier
Spence - Catton - Pinelli
Martone

Chadwick - Yakemchuk
Mynio - Parekh

George 

https://www.tsn.ca/hockey-canada/video/world-juniors-summer-showcase-canada-8-finland-6~2971189