Tomorrow is today for Hayes, Martin
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Bob Davies
The future can be a funny thing.
When high-end talent is involved, it has a way of quickly becoming the present.
That’s the way it is for Soo Greyhounds second-year forwards Brady Martin and Travis Hayes.
It’s not often a club depends so heavily on two 17-year-old (2007 birth year) players.
But it’s also not often a club has a pair of youngsters capable of operating in a place where offensive talent converges with a physical edge.
“I suspect there’ll be nights this season when we’re all shaking our heads over the way they’re controlling the game,” said Hounds head coach John Dean, whose team opens the 2024-2025 regular season on Friday (against Saginaw) and Saturday (against Sudbury) in 7:07 p.m. starts at GFL Memorial Gardens. “Marty and Trav dominated at times last year both physically and with their skill.”
Named the club’s rookie of the year, Hayes finished with a 14-21-35 stat line in 58 regular season games. The five-foot-11, 173-pound winger had a plus-minus of plus-9.
Martin, a six-foot, 178-pound centre, started his OHL career slowly after suffering an opening night lower-body injury.
He played in 52 games, scored 10 times, assisted on 18 others and notched a plus-minus of plus-12.
Today, Dean sees both players progressing nicely, while showing a more mature approach “that will help their games shine.”
He spoke of improved practice habits, more attention to detail and how both players have natural ability.
“They’re going to be good hockey players forever,” the coach added. “Now they have to look for the small advantages.”
Of Martin, who was taken third overall by the Soo in the 2023 Priority Selections draft, Dean said the youngster “has a maturity level off the charts compared to last year. His habits are elite.”
As for Hayes, a second-round choice (25th overall), he can be an emotional player who, early in his first season, got down on himself when pucks weren’t going into the net.
“He needs to manage that,” said Dean, who spoke of how he, too, is very much an emotional person. “He waited below the puck a little bit last year. But he’s come in this season with a more mature approach.”
A native of Westland, Mich., Hayes was chosen to the OHL’s First All-Rookie Team.
“It was obviously a learning season and I learned a lot,” Hayes said. “This season, I want to be a 200-foot player. I want to be good on both the offensive and defensive side of the puck and I want to be a guy who continues to play with an edge, 100 per cent.”
To that end, he also spoke of how he worked on protecting the puck and his down-low game over a busy summer.
Martin discussed how his game improved as the season went on, in large part because of the late start he got due to injury.
The fact it ended well has given the Elmira, Ont., native a “good kick-start” for the beginning of this season.
“I want to be strong, physical and hard on the puck,” he added. “I worked on my skating and got faster over the summer, since being fast and quick is the key to being good nowadays.”
Dean refers to Martin as a youngster who’s “naturally as strong as an ox.”
Both players benefitted over the summer while representing their respective countries at the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup.
Determined to do whatever it takes to eventually play as pros, Hayes and Martin are entering their draft years.
Both are excited, but say they have put team goals first. Both also want to lead.
And the two have developed a strong bond off the ice.
Often skating on the same line, as the club’s only 2007s a season ago, they found themselves sitting beside each other on the team bus.
While getting to know each other on and off the ice, they quickly became close friends.
“We’re great buddies off the ice,” said Martin. “We hang out all the time and I love playing with him.”
“Super close,” is the way in which Hayes described the relationship. “We’re stall mates at the rink and we hang out every day after hockey. Last year on the bus, after games we together evaluated how we played.”
Hayes also called Martin “a driver of play,” and someone easy to read off of.
Martin said the two talked together regularly over the summer months.
“And I go to his billet house every day after hockey,” the centre added.
Hayes lives with Dustin and Christina Grondin.
Meantime, Dean wrapped things up with a glowing review of what he’s seen from the duo in the preseason and what he expects moving forward.
“I don’t think there’s two 17-year-olds in this league who play with as much grit and physicality,” the coach began. “And then you add in their skill, wow, watch out.”
