No matter what happens in his NHL career, Matt Martin holds a special place on Long Island (2024)

EAST MEADOW, N.Y. — There was still an hour or so before Matt Martin’s Hockey Academy was set to begin last Monday, but the early arrivals knew just where to find him.

The stream of kids asking for signed sticks and pictures was slow but steady. Some parents, too. This week-long camp has been running since 2015 when Martin was 26 years old, a few years into a New York Islanders career that featured a few goals, more than a few fights and a growing love for Long Island. Martin kept the camp at Northwell Health Ice Center, the Islanders’ practice facility, even after he signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs in the summer of 2016.

Fast-forward to last week: Martin, now a 35-year-old father of two who sits 45 games short of 1,000 for his NHL career, is still getting out on the ball hockey rink in front of the practice facility. He is still signing sticks and helmets and taking pictures with a camp that’s grown from around 50 kids that first summer to over 250.

“It’s the highlight of the summer for my son,” Cal Clutterbuck said.

Martin is at a crossroads professionally. His Islanders career may be over thanks to limited cap space and just, you know, being 35, but Long Island is home and the community he’s worked hard to support isn’t going anywhere.

“As a friend, he is exactly who you see on TV, who the kids see at the camp — he’s just a genuine person,” Josh Bailey said. “It goes far beyond what he does on the ice. I feel like we could talk for a while about him. He’s just a caring, giving person and the camp is one of the ways he shows that.”

The Matt Martin Foundation, which started the same year as the hockey camp, supports several causes: Finding a cure and treatments for cystic fibrosis, which his brother-in-law, Gunnar Esiason, was born with; ACDS, which provides programs for children with Down syndrome; and the NYPD Widows’ and Children’s Fund, among others. The hockey camp and the foundation’s charity poker event, which is in a couple of weeks, are the primary fundraisers.

And they’re well-attended, not just by Islander fans but by Martin’s teammates. When he was a Leaf for two years, Mitch Marner came down to run some drills with the kids at the camp. This past week, Casey Cizikas, Clutterbuck, Kyle MacLean, Kyle Palmieri and Ryan Pulock were on the ice with the kids.

Part of the allure of the last few years of Islander hockey was continuity. Lou Lamoriello’s first personnel move when he took over as president and general manager six years ago was trading to bring Martin back from the Leafs — it was Lamoriello who’d signed Martin away for four years and $10 million, after all. Martin’s return reunited the Isles’ Identity Line — him, Cizikas and Clutterbuck — which made a real impact from 2018-2021 as the league, and Martin, transitioned away from the need for enforcers and into an era where fourth-liners had a hockey job to do.

In the 2020 bubble run to the Eastern Conference final, Martin had five goals in 22 playoff games. So what he did on the ice mattered, even though the Islanders fell just shy of the Stanley Cup Final two years in a row and have yet to get anywhere close to those heights in the last three seasons.

Bailey was sent out last summer in a cap-cutting move; he tried to latch on with the Ottawa Senators last training camp but has been content to coach his sons on the Island ever since. His boys, 8-year-old Wyatt and Mac, 7, were among the campers last week. So were Jack Cizikas and River Clutterbuck.

Every team likes to talk about chemistry and how close they are. When you see Casey Cizikas racing around trying to get four boys into hockey gear seconds before his friend’s camp starts, you know the talk around this Islanders team is legit — and why it’s hard to go about breaking up a core like the one the Islanders have, even if it’s time.

“They’re more like brothers to me, family,” Clutterbuck said. “It comes down to shared experience, having a level of respect for your teammates, friends, their families. When you go through difficult experiences with people, it’s hard not to become lifelong friends.”

Clutterbuck has some uncertainty to deal with, too, as training camps loom less than a month away. For Martin, a role as a 13th forward — possibly even with the Islanders if they sort out the tail end of their forward group — could have some appeal. Clutterbuck does not appear headed down that part-time path, so he waits for a call and a decision he and his wife, Cassie, have to make in short order: A quick agreement and a spot with another team in another city, accepting a tryout offer or maybe even retirement.

Martin may have to make that call, too. He’s not ready to step away from playing, he knows that for sure.

“You just take it day by day,” Martin said between stick signings and pictures last week. He had just come off an informal skate with seven NHLers, just about all of whom will be Islanders this coming season. “I haven’t really been through this one before. Last time I was a free agent I was 27, there were some offers on the table and it was more about picking the right place.

“I’m 35 now, I have a family, it’s different than last time. But I think it’ll all work itself out.”

If Martin (823 games as an Islander) and Clutterbuck (718) leave, three of the 12 players with the most games played in Islanders history will have left in the last two summers, after Bailey’s departure/retirement. Captain Anders Lee (759) has two years left on his contract and Brock Nelson (840) has one. Age is undefeated in pro sports and the Islanders have to get younger. They won six playoff series from 2019-21; they’ve won three playoff games since.

But this group built something. Garth Snow was the GM who drafted and traded for all of them and Lamoriello, along with Barry Trotz, helped make them a successful core, not just a bunch of longtimers who care about each other and the Island. When they all started, the Islanders were a team to joke about. For a few years, they were a team to be reckoned with — and they hope to be again.

“I’d like to think we changed that narrative a bit about the Island, about the way this team’s perceived,” Bailey said. “It was maybe that way when I came into the league — there’s a new building, new ownership, the playoff runs. I don’t see how people can say that anymore.”

Bailey and his family of five are still Long Islanders. The Clutterbucks are raising four kids here. “This is all they know really,” Clutterbuck said. Martin married into Long Island sports royalty — his wife, Sydney, is Boomer Esiason’s daughter. This would be a special place to his family even if he hadn’t embraced this community the way he has.

“We love it here,” Martin said. “Obviously, Syd’s from here. I’ve spent a good chunk of my adult life here. We don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon.”

And the community will continue to benefit from Martin’s presence. Teenage counselors at his camp last week started as campers nine years ago. His friends, whether they’re teammates or not, will continue to pile onto the ice and allow the kids to skate with pros.

It’s a little sad for longtime Islander fans to think about life after Martin and Clutterbuck, two fan favorites who were part of the team’s rebirth in the last decade. But you’ll never have to look far to find Martin.

“These are relationships that have lasted into two decades now,” Bailey said. “Even if we’re not on the same team, that never leaves you. On the ice, off the ice, these guys are friends for life. The hockey side, you hope all your friends get everything they desire.”

(Top photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)

Arthur Staple has covered New York hockey for The Athletic since 2019, initially on the Islanders beat before moving over to primarily focus on the Rangers in 2021. Previously, he spent 20 years at Newsday, where he covered everything from high schools to the NFL. Follow Arthur on Twitter @stapeathletic