The Stanley Cup spent Tuesday morning in a fieldhouse in Leduc.
Jordan Martinook brought it to the Leduc Recreation Centre from 10 to 11:30 a.m., with fans lining up from 9 a.m. at the east entrance. The City of Leduc told people to bring their own cameras.
Every player on a winning roster gets about a day with the trophy. He spent part of his here, which was never in much doubt. The Hurricanes' own player page notes that he spends his summers in Alberta.
He came up through the local programs
Martinook was born in Brandon, Manitoba, on July 25, 1992, and grew up in Leduc.
Leduc Minor Hockey Association. The Leduc Junior Athletic Club. The U15 and U18 AAA Leduc Oil Kings.
From there, the Drayton Valley Thunder of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, then two seasons with the Vancouver Giants in the WHL, where he put up 51 goals and 41 assists in 144 games along with 147 penalty minutes. The scoring and the penalty minutes together are a fair summary of the player he became.
The 58th pick
Phoenix took him in the second round on June 22, 2012, 58th overall. He signed his entry-level deal that September.
Then he waited.
His NHL debut didn't come until December 6, 2014, against Boston, two and a half years after the draft. His first goal came the following October against Marc-André Fleury, and it was the game winner.
He led all Coyotes forwards in shorthanded ice time that season with 209 minutes. That's the job he made his own: penalty kill, defensive-zone starts, work rate.
The trade that made him
On May 3, 2018, Arizona sent him and a fourth-round pick to Carolina for Marcus Kruger and a third.
It was not a headline transaction. He'd just finished a year with six goals and nine assists in 81 games, and it later came out that he'd played the second half of it with a torn ligament in his left thumb.
Carolina had just hired Rod Brind'Amour, a two-time Selke winner, as head coach. A defensive forward with a work ethic landed with a coach built out of the same material.
Seven months after the trade, Martinook scored his first NHL hat trick against Florida.
Heart and soul
When Carolina signed him to a three-year, $9.15-million extension on July 1, 2024, general manager Eric Tulsky didn't reach for the usual language.
"Jordan is the heart and soul of our team, and he has played a pivotal role in changing the culture here over his six years as a Hurricane," Tulsky said.
At the time of that signing, Martinook had 197 points in 641 regular-season games and 27 points in 61 playoff games. He wore an A. He had never played on the power play.
He also hosts an annual preseason event in Raleigh called the Marty Party, which raises money for local causes.
What he won
Carolina beat the Vegas Golden Knights in the final, closing it out in Game 6 with a 3-0 win at T-Mobile Arena.
Martinook kept a blog through the series for NHL.com. Writing after Game 6, he described the third period as hard, said the team was trying to lock it down as tightly as it could, and that the empty-net goal was the moment they could relax.
He said he couldn't imagine having done it with a different group of guys.
Fourteen years
Drafted 2012. First NHL game 2014. First Stanley Cup 2026.
Most of the 210 players taken in that draft never got a day like Tuesday. A lot of them never played a game.
Why the Cup travels
The Hockey Hall of Fame sends the trophy out each summer with a keeper, and every player and staff member on the winning team gets their day with it.
There's no rule about what you do with it. It has been to hospitals, to funerals, to kitchen tables. Martinook took it to the rink.
Sources
Jordan Martinook brings the Stanley Cup to the LRC August 11 — City of Leduc
Jordan Martinook player page — Carolina Hurricanes
Martinook signs 3-year, $9.15 million contract with Hurricanes — NHL.com
Stanley Cup Final blog: Jordan Martinook — NHL.com
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