Ex-Islander Matt Martin looks to become a GM

Matt Martin started to think more and more of pursuing a career either in hockey management or broadcasting the closer he came to the end of his playing days. So he jumped when offered a role as a special assistant to new Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche upon announcing his retirement as a player a little more than a week ago.

Now his ultimate goal, Martin said on Thursday after being part of the Islanders’ evaluation team at their summer prospect development camp at Northwell Health Ice Center in East Meadow, is to be an NHL GM himself.

“Matt is, first of all, a great person,” coach Patrick Roy said. “Very smart. He’s already very involved in those meetings. He’s got great values. And I think he’s going to be outstanding in that job. The only problem for him is I think he’ll be a GM somewhere faster than everybody would think.”

Martin said his short time on the job has been sort of a crash course in seeing how all aspects of a GM’s responsibility are handled. That includes player evaluation, scouting, contract negotiations and trade talks.

When the season starts, Martin said he will also be traveling to watch Islanders’ prospects play, either for their AHL affiliate in Bridgeport or in college or junior hockey games.

For now, Martin said the learning curve as he tries to assimilate all the new information is much like it was for him as a young player trying to learn to play in the NHL.

“If you asked me before I even took this job [being a GM] is one of the things that interests me,” Martin said. “I really do want to learn the ins and outs of everything. Darche has said I’m going to have the ability to do a lot of different things. I spent some time with the scouts this week. Spent time on the draft. It was pretty cool to see all the behind-the-scenes things that, as a player, you don’t focus on or think about.

“It was a totally different perspective on why different decisions have to be made.”

Even when playing Martin’s curiosity and interest in hockey management led him to ask questions of former president/GM Lou Lamoriello.

Martin said he considers both Lamoriello, a Hall of Fame executive, and Darche, a rookie GM after being the Lightning’s assistant GM, to be excellent teachers.

“Darche has been amazing, just inputs on anything, really,” Martin said. “Not even player related. Things we can do around the team, or around the fan base. He said it to me 100 times that he wants to be challenged. It’s been a great relationship so far. I look forward to learning a lot more from him, just like I did from Lou.

“Two very different personality types, two different ways of running things. Not saying one is better than the other. I’m very fortunate to have learned from Lou and now learn from Darche as well. I feel like that can go a long way for me moving forward.”

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.