Porter Martone is the name at the top of The Athletic’s preseason Calder Trophy ranking for the 2026-27 NHL season, a spot that frames him as the rookie to beat before a game has been played. The list, built on projected rookie seasons rather than long-term career value, has Martone first among the top 20 candidates.
That matters now because the ranking is not just a label; it is a forecast of role, usage and scoring runway. Martone is being treated as a potential immediate impact player for the Flyers, and one of the reasons is the path to power-play time. Trevor Zegras and Travis Konecny are assumed to occupy two of the top power-play spots, which leaves two openings for Martone, Matvei Michkov, Tyson Foerster, Owen Tippett and Christian Dvorak. Martone is expected to sit near the top of that pecking order for one of the available PP1 spots.
The case for him is straightforward. His end-of-last-season NHL showing was strong enough to make him the Calder favorite heading into this year, and the projection reflects that. Scott Wheeler, Harman Dayal and Corey Pronman all helped shape the quarterly ranking, and Wheeler said Martone tops the list of contenders. In Wheeler’s view, that kind of placement comes from the belief that Martone can produce a season in the 50-point range, with a path to 60-plus points if he stays healthy and gets puck luck.
That is where the ranking gets interesting. Being first on a preseason list does not guarantee the award case will hold when the season starts. Martone can look like the favorite on paper and still need the right deployment to turn that into actual production. The difference between a solid rookie year and a trophy-winning one may come down to whether he gets meaningful PP1 time instead of being pushed lower in the Flyers’ pecking order, and whether the puck breaks his way enough to lift him from the 50-point range into the 60-plus range.
The broader ranking also shows how narrow the race can be before the season begins. It is a snapshot of rookie expectations, shaped by projected linemates, special-teams usage and the league’s eligibility rules, which limit a player to no more than 25 games in any single preceding season and no more than six games in each of any two preceding seasons. A Calder-eligible player also must not have turned 26 by Sept. 15 of the season in question. That makes the 2026-27 race a projection exercise, not a verdict.
Martone’s next test comes when the season opens and the Flyers decide where he fits. If he lands one of those PP1 spots and the scoring follows, the preseason favorite tag will look earned. If not, the gap between promise and production will define his rookie year more than any ranking ever could.
