Post by Ginger on Nov 14, 2018 16:33:20 GMT -5
SOURCE: theathletic.com/654147/2018/11/14/paul-martin-retirement-sharks-penguins-devils-gophers-elk-river/
(Paywall, but there's a free trial going on at present)
During a 14-year NHL career, Paul Martin has a lot to be proud of.
He’ll go down as one of the best defensemen in University of Minnesota history and one of the best Minnesota-born defensemen in NHL history, but it’s who he was off the ice that has left the most lasting impression on his now former teammates.
Caring. Charitable. A shoulder to lean on. And so damn cool.
Examples?
— “Great, great professional. Probably one of those most generous and down-to-earth people you’ll ever meet. Such a good, good guy,” said Zach Parise, who played with Martin on the New Jersey Devils and in the 2014 Olympics.
— “One of the best teammates I’ve had the chance to play with. Very calming factor, easy going, someone you could talk to when things weren’t going well. I can’t tell you how many times I’d get frustrated after tough games and he was the guy that was always there to talk to me and talk me through it. We’d talk about hockey or life and everything. He settled me down, he calmed me down. Just supportive always. Only cared about each of us, not himself,” said San Jose Sharks star center Logan Couture.
— “Oh my God, he was the best. If you have 20 Paul Martins in your locker room, I think you’re doing something right. He was truly special. He’s loved in every locker room. You can go around and ask every player he’s ever played with and I’d bet they’d say the same thing. He comes off as quiet, but he’s got that ‘It’ factor. Just a cool, cool guy,” said current Wild goalie Alex Stalock, who played with Martin on the San Jose Sharks.
— “Solid pro. When he came to San Jose (in 2015), we’d just come off missing the playoffs. It was a tough couple of years of really getting momentum going, and he helped really strengthen the locker room back up. Just from the type of person he is. Put everything aside from the great player and pro he is, but he’s just such a solid guy. Helps everyone out around him, wants to take care of the guys around him first. He showed up every day, worked and always got the job done. You never had to worry about Paul Martin and as a teammate, that’s always a great thing,” said Joe Pavelski, the captain of the San Jose Sharks.
— “The most special thing about that guy is it didn’t matter how many times you asked him how he was or what was he doing or what was going on, he always just cared about you. We always joked, we know his name, but we know nothing else ’cause he’s always asking if we’re all right, how our kids are doing, how life is. He just cared that much and he really put the ‘Nice’ in the Minnesota Nice. It’s like this guy just exemplifies that. I mean, just look what he’s doing for kids in Minnesota. That says everything you want to know about him. It’s just so genuine of him. I’m not kidding you, he’s the most genuine human being I’ve ever met,” said Brent Burns, Martin’s former defense partner and protégé in San Jose, with a tear in his eye.
As you may have guessed by now, Paul Martin’s long hockey-playing career has come to a close.
And as bittersweet as that is because the 37-year-old Elk River native still feels he can play at a high level, Martin has accepted it and is content with the career he had and what’s in store for him in the future.
Martin arrived at a downtown Minneapolis coffee shop earlier this week looking like Paul Bunyan.
Thick beard, brown plaid shirt, jeans, blue jacket and a smile.
And ready to move on with the rest of his life.
What’s next?
He’s trying to figure that out.
He wants to start a family. He plans to devote more time to his foundation, Shine A Ligh7, which provides money to non-profit organizations that help those affected by bullying, depression and mental-health illnesses. And he wants to go back to school and fulfill a promise made to his mother, Bev, to complete his degree after signing with the Devils after his third year with the Gophers.
He has about a year’s worth of classes left. His major is business, marketing and communications with a minor in history.
“When I left, my mom made me promise I’d go back to school, and how do you say no to your mom when she’s crying and you’re leaving her after your junior year?” Martin said, smiling, during a sitdown with The Athletic. “So, I think I’ll finish.”
Honestly, what a career for the former star multi-sport athlete and fourth full-time NHLer from proud Elk River High School (Joel Otto, Nate Prosser and Dan Hinote being the others).
Martin had to give up basketball in high school, but at Elk River, he was a stud wide receiver who caught 189 career passes for 3,009 yards, which were both state records at the time. He was an outfielder who made it to state tournament his senior year before losing to Cretin-Derham Hall (that was the game Elks pitcher Paul Feiner became the only guy to ever strike out Joe Mauer in his high-school career). And, Martin was a star hockey player who earned Minnesota Mr. Hockey honors in 2000 (his senior year, Elk River went 21-1 and ranked No. 1 in the state before getting upset by Osseo in the section semifinals; Osseo would lose to Matt Hendricks and eventual state champion Blaine in the section final).
With the Gophers, Martin skated in 127 games, scoring 20 goals, 77 assists (12th in program history for defensemen) and 97 points (15th in program history). He helped the university to three straight NCAA tournament appearances and back-to-back national championships in 2002 and 2003.
In the NHL with the Devils, Sharks and Pittsburgh Penguins, he ranks seventh all-time among Minnesota-born defensemen with 320 points and played the sixth-most games by a Minnesota-born defenseman (870).
“He’s one of those guys you know he’s good but then you play with him and you’re like, ‘Man, I didn’t know how good he was,’” Parise said. “I think of how many defense partners he’s played with and how good he made them. Just a great player.”
Parise added with a chuckle, “Not really flashy and a lot of times looked like he was about to stumble skating up the ice, but next thing you know he’s skating away from four guys. He was a freak. He was a freak athlete. He doesn’t look like an athlete, but he was a freak.”
Added Pavelski, “It’s funny, everybody says he’s not flashy, but when you watch him in the D-zone and he’d have two guys coming down, barreling down on him, he’d always make this little pop play and you’d be on the bench like, ‘Woah, that was a nice play.’ I mean, he might not be dangling guys, going and scoring goals or anything, but the little plays he made were pretty flashy, I think, in a lot of guys’ eyes and just really relieved a lot of pressure at times.
“He’s as smart a defenseman as I’ve ever played with.”
Bret Hedican, the Minnesota-born longtime former NHLer who does Sharks TV, concurred.
“Consistency was his hallmark,” Hedican said. “All the little plays that you want somebody to make as defenseman, he made them in situations during the course of the game that were pivotal. I mean, you got a guy that he’s never too high, never too low and therefore, when it comes time to making the big play in the big game, well there’s Paul Martin.”
And he was the perfect template of what would be a good partner for the sometimes-unpredictable thoroughbred that is Burns.
Martin was brought to San Jose from the Penguins in large part to settle Burns down. With Burns playing alongside Martin, the Sharks went to the Stanley Cup Final in 2016 and Burns won the Norris Trophy in 2017.
“I think the biggest area where he helped Burnzie was in the defensive zone,” Hedican said, “because Paul Martin would not run around in his defensive zone, and Burns, he can be a little antsy in the defensive zone where he might run on your side of the ice.
“If I’m on defense and I’m a left shot like Paul Martin, and Burns, he’s the right defenseman on the right side and all of a sudden Burns is over on my side, if you’re a defenseman, that can rattle you in a lot of ways. You can get a little bit panicked, like, ‘Why are you over here?’ But the calmness of Paul Martin allowed Brent Burns to get back over on his side. He settled things back down and then, boy, they’d go on their merry way up the ice.
“It was the personality of Paul Martin and his ability to handle Burns’ sometimes inability to stay calm that made that pair great, if that makes sense.”
When Burns won the Norris, Martin was as happy as anyone.
“Just to play with him is special for me. He’s like LeBron James. Just a freak. He has all the tools,” Martin said. “I don’t need a trophy, but I feel like I kind of won it, too.”
Burns is the first to admit this.
“He was the mainstay I could lean on,” Burns said. “Paulie was such a calming influence and just a knowledgeable guy. I think he was great on and off the ice for me, and I can’t say enough about it. Great passer. Always putting the puck in a good spot for me, which is lending to my strengths. Was always putting it in a shooting position for me.
“He was very good liaison between the older guys and younger guys and he flowed between both groups. Older guys and younger guys, they’re just in different spots, different worries and stresses and he was always just a great person to kind of go between those groups and be just a special teammate.
“It was tough to lose him here this year and hopefully he’s happy with everything because he had a great career.”
Martin is happy.
Mentally, after last season in which the Sharks sent him to the minors for a stint and he ended his career by being a healthy scratch down the stretch in the playoffs, Martin really contemplated during the offseason whether he wanted to keep playing and chase a job.
Agent Ben Hankinson did his due diligence, of course, and tried to land Martin a gig, but Martin didn’t want to accept any professional tryout offers and didn’t want to continue his career in Europe.
“Hank, he’s always working and doing his job, but I think he knew I was already at a place where I thought I was going to be done,” Martin said. “At the end of the summer, I was pretty OK mentally. It’s still different, especially once the season starts, you know? You’re kind of like, Am I supposed to be out there? What am I supposed to be doing? I can still do that.
“After all, this is the game I love, what I’ve done forever, and I just enjoyed the guys and have so many great memories, so it’s hard to put into words how I feel. I do think a lot about it, the way that it went, last year being up and down and injured, the bittersweetness of losing to Pittsburgh, my former team, in the Stanley Cup. You say you don’t care, but that was tough.
“You want to finish out the way you want to finish out. But … I’m OK. It’s been kind of nice spending more time with family and with friends.”
Martin has spent a lot of time at his cabin on Gull Lake. He organized a group of friends to travel to St. Cloud a few weeks ago to watch former Gophers captain and teammate Grant Potulny coach for Northern Michigan. He took his girlfriend, Kara, to the Phish concert in Las Vegas. He’s vacationed in Vail, Colo., and went to Italy. He has been mostly living in Kara’s tiny one-bedroom apartment in St. Paul because his sister, Leah, her boyfriend and their dog, Blue, lives in his downtown Minneapolis townhome along the Mississippi River.
“So, I’ve been bouncing around,” Martin said, laughing. “I’m looking at houses. Well, I’m supposed to do that. It’s been a slow, slow process, but we’re getting to that point.”
It’s the teammates he’ll miss the most.
He considers himself privileged that he got to learn from guys like Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer in New Jersey, that he got to play with superstars like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in Pittsburgh, that he shared a locker room with, in his eyes, future Hall of Famers Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau in San Jose.
And, he played with one special Gophers group that will be lifelong friends.
“He doesn’t forget anybody. He could play 14 years in the NHL, but you know what, I went to high school and college with these guys and I’m not going to forget them,” said former Gophers associate coach Mike Guentzel, who coached Martin and was blown away when more than a decade ago he came to his two oldest boys’ high-school graduations. “I’ll tell you what, if it wasn’t for him, that facility upgrade at the U would be a lot further behind. That’s the kind of person he is. He was a major, major part in giving and recruiting to give. The last six or seven years he made my job at the U a lot easier because of not only being a good player and being a proud alumni, but what he was able to give to us.”
Shine A Ligh7 is his passion project, though.
He has seen mental-health issues personally affect family, friends and teammates. He worries about bullying and depression, and how that can make people, especially young people, consider drugs or suicide.
“I’m still deciding what to do next, but the foundation will be the priority for me now and whether it be trying to provide some kind of service or just do what we’re doing right now with the three beneficiaries that we have,” Martin said.
Martin, after studying what friends like Matt Cullen and Mark Parrish do for children, started the foundation two years ago. Money raised goes to the Washburn Center for Children, the Domestic Abuse Project, where his sister is a social worker, and Camp Confidence in Brainerd.
“Mental health is becoming something that we’re seeing it affecting people a lot more,” Martin said. “More people have noticed and the stigma of it being a weakness, that bothers me and it’s something I wanted to bring and shine a light on and bring attention to.
“It’s just not kids. Even the guys we played with in the NHL who have concussions or the guys that come back from war and have PTSD or trouble with head injuries and mental health, I want them to either have somebody to talk to or a program where you can find help and make sure that you don’t go unnoticed. Mental health or depression has run in my family. And I have a big family and a couple have taken their lives, so it’s always been something that I’ve seen and wished that there’s a way that we can help and bring more awareness to it.
Martin is a huge music guy. In fact, the name of the foundation stems from the Rolling Stones song, Shine a Light, with Martin’s uniform No. 7 substituted for the ‘T.”
He has held two big musical fundraisers at the famous First Avenue in Minneapolis, and so many of his former teammates have come to Minnesota for the events. Burns came to the first one.
“I think he called me about 70 times in a row just to make sure I got on the plane,” the often absent-minded Burns joked. “But I knew it meant so much to him, so I wouldn’t have missed it.”
But Martin says, “The big rock stars are the kids that come in, and they share their story and why the Washburn Center is so important to them or why Camp Confidence helps their life. People can come get that message and see and hear what they’re supporting, and these kids are the ones that really kind of knock it out of the park and are the reason we’re there.”
As you can tell, Martin’s teammates are right.
He’s a special person, and he thanks his upbringing from parents Bev and Dale for that.
“I’m very fortunate for my parents. They’re very loving and caring and raised me to, I think for the most part, be good, be humble and work hard and just have that mentality to treat other people the way you want to be treated,” Martin said. “I still remember this one day when I was young where I had this basketball and hockey tournament on the same day. One was in Minneapolis, the other in Grand Rapids. And my dad would be going, hiking back and forth while my mom and sister would be doing their own thing.
“So all those trips, you don’t realize until you get older how much time and effort that they put into letting you chase your dreams. That’s what put me down this path.”
Martin wants to experience that for himself.
“I definitely want to start a family, so I don’t know if that means I would be the stay-at-home dad, but that would be fine with me,” he said, laughing. “But there’s no doubt, I’ll miss hockey. You’ll always miss it because you’ll never get that feeling back of being able to do something you love in front of people. I love the game and I think it will always be a part of me. And I’ll be part of it again, maybe with kids and some youth programs.
“I’ll see what I can do to help them out. That’d be fun, I think.”
(Paywall, but there's a free trial going on at present)
During a 14-year NHL career, Paul Martin has a lot to be proud of.
He’ll go down as one of the best defensemen in University of Minnesota history and one of the best Minnesota-born defensemen in NHL history, but it’s who he was off the ice that has left the most lasting impression on his now former teammates.
Caring. Charitable. A shoulder to lean on. And so damn cool.
Examples?
— “Great, great professional. Probably one of those most generous and down-to-earth people you’ll ever meet. Such a good, good guy,” said Zach Parise, who played with Martin on the New Jersey Devils and in the 2014 Olympics.
— “One of the best teammates I’ve had the chance to play with. Very calming factor, easy going, someone you could talk to when things weren’t going well. I can’t tell you how many times I’d get frustrated after tough games and he was the guy that was always there to talk to me and talk me through it. We’d talk about hockey or life and everything. He settled me down, he calmed me down. Just supportive always. Only cared about each of us, not himself,” said San Jose Sharks star center Logan Couture.
— “Oh my God, he was the best. If you have 20 Paul Martins in your locker room, I think you’re doing something right. He was truly special. He’s loved in every locker room. You can go around and ask every player he’s ever played with and I’d bet they’d say the same thing. He comes off as quiet, but he’s got that ‘It’ factor. Just a cool, cool guy,” said current Wild goalie Alex Stalock, who played with Martin on the San Jose Sharks.
— “Solid pro. When he came to San Jose (in 2015), we’d just come off missing the playoffs. It was a tough couple of years of really getting momentum going, and he helped really strengthen the locker room back up. Just from the type of person he is. Put everything aside from the great player and pro he is, but he’s just such a solid guy. Helps everyone out around him, wants to take care of the guys around him first. He showed up every day, worked and always got the job done. You never had to worry about Paul Martin and as a teammate, that’s always a great thing,” said Joe Pavelski, the captain of the San Jose Sharks.
— “The most special thing about that guy is it didn’t matter how many times you asked him how he was or what was he doing or what was going on, he always just cared about you. We always joked, we know his name, but we know nothing else ’cause he’s always asking if we’re all right, how our kids are doing, how life is. He just cared that much and he really put the ‘Nice’ in the Minnesota Nice. It’s like this guy just exemplifies that. I mean, just look what he’s doing for kids in Minnesota. That says everything you want to know about him. It’s just so genuine of him. I’m not kidding you, he’s the most genuine human being I’ve ever met,” said Brent Burns, Martin’s former defense partner and protégé in San Jose, with a tear in his eye.
As you may have guessed by now, Paul Martin’s long hockey-playing career has come to a close.
And as bittersweet as that is because the 37-year-old Elk River native still feels he can play at a high level, Martin has accepted it and is content with the career he had and what’s in store for him in the future.
Martin arrived at a downtown Minneapolis coffee shop earlier this week looking like Paul Bunyan.
Thick beard, brown plaid shirt, jeans, blue jacket and a smile.
And ready to move on with the rest of his life.
What’s next?
He’s trying to figure that out.
He wants to start a family. He plans to devote more time to his foundation, Shine A Ligh7, which provides money to non-profit organizations that help those affected by bullying, depression and mental-health illnesses. And he wants to go back to school and fulfill a promise made to his mother, Bev, to complete his degree after signing with the Devils after his third year with the Gophers.
He has about a year’s worth of classes left. His major is business, marketing and communications with a minor in history.
“When I left, my mom made me promise I’d go back to school, and how do you say no to your mom when she’s crying and you’re leaving her after your junior year?” Martin said, smiling, during a sitdown with The Athletic. “So, I think I’ll finish.”
Honestly, what a career for the former star multi-sport athlete and fourth full-time NHLer from proud Elk River High School (Joel Otto, Nate Prosser and Dan Hinote being the others).
Martin had to give up basketball in high school, but at Elk River, he was a stud wide receiver who caught 189 career passes for 3,009 yards, which were both state records at the time. He was an outfielder who made it to state tournament his senior year before losing to Cretin-Derham Hall (that was the game Elks pitcher Paul Feiner became the only guy to ever strike out Joe Mauer in his high-school career). And, Martin was a star hockey player who earned Minnesota Mr. Hockey honors in 2000 (his senior year, Elk River went 21-1 and ranked No. 1 in the state before getting upset by Osseo in the section semifinals; Osseo would lose to Matt Hendricks and eventual state champion Blaine in the section final).
With the Gophers, Martin skated in 127 games, scoring 20 goals, 77 assists (12th in program history for defensemen) and 97 points (15th in program history). He helped the university to three straight NCAA tournament appearances and back-to-back national championships in 2002 and 2003.
In the NHL with the Devils, Sharks and Pittsburgh Penguins, he ranks seventh all-time among Minnesota-born defensemen with 320 points and played the sixth-most games by a Minnesota-born defenseman (870).
“He’s one of those guys you know he’s good but then you play with him and you’re like, ‘Man, I didn’t know how good he was,’” Parise said. “I think of how many defense partners he’s played with and how good he made them. Just a great player.”
Parise added with a chuckle, “Not really flashy and a lot of times looked like he was about to stumble skating up the ice, but next thing you know he’s skating away from four guys. He was a freak. He was a freak athlete. He doesn’t look like an athlete, but he was a freak.”
Added Pavelski, “It’s funny, everybody says he’s not flashy, but when you watch him in the D-zone and he’d have two guys coming down, barreling down on him, he’d always make this little pop play and you’d be on the bench like, ‘Woah, that was a nice play.’ I mean, he might not be dangling guys, going and scoring goals or anything, but the little plays he made were pretty flashy, I think, in a lot of guys’ eyes and just really relieved a lot of pressure at times.
“He’s as smart a defenseman as I’ve ever played with.”
Bret Hedican, the Minnesota-born longtime former NHLer who does Sharks TV, concurred.
“Consistency was his hallmark,” Hedican said. “All the little plays that you want somebody to make as defenseman, he made them in situations during the course of the game that were pivotal. I mean, you got a guy that he’s never too high, never too low and therefore, when it comes time to making the big play in the big game, well there’s Paul Martin.”
And he was the perfect template of what would be a good partner for the sometimes-unpredictable thoroughbred that is Burns.
Martin was brought to San Jose from the Penguins in large part to settle Burns down. With Burns playing alongside Martin, the Sharks went to the Stanley Cup Final in 2016 and Burns won the Norris Trophy in 2017.
“I think the biggest area where he helped Burnzie was in the defensive zone,” Hedican said, “because Paul Martin would not run around in his defensive zone, and Burns, he can be a little antsy in the defensive zone where he might run on your side of the ice.
“If I’m on defense and I’m a left shot like Paul Martin, and Burns, he’s the right defenseman on the right side and all of a sudden Burns is over on my side, if you’re a defenseman, that can rattle you in a lot of ways. You can get a little bit panicked, like, ‘Why are you over here?’ But the calmness of Paul Martin allowed Brent Burns to get back over on his side. He settled things back down and then, boy, they’d go on their merry way up the ice.
“It was the personality of Paul Martin and his ability to handle Burns’ sometimes inability to stay calm that made that pair great, if that makes sense.”
When Burns won the Norris, Martin was as happy as anyone.
“Just to play with him is special for me. He’s like LeBron James. Just a freak. He has all the tools,” Martin said. “I don’t need a trophy, but I feel like I kind of won it, too.”
Burns is the first to admit this.
“He was the mainstay I could lean on,” Burns said. “Paulie was such a calming influence and just a knowledgeable guy. I think he was great on and off the ice for me, and I can’t say enough about it. Great passer. Always putting the puck in a good spot for me, which is lending to my strengths. Was always putting it in a shooting position for me.
“He was very good liaison between the older guys and younger guys and he flowed between both groups. Older guys and younger guys, they’re just in different spots, different worries and stresses and he was always just a great person to kind of go between those groups and be just a special teammate.
“It was tough to lose him here this year and hopefully he’s happy with everything because he had a great career.”
Martin is happy.
Mentally, after last season in which the Sharks sent him to the minors for a stint and he ended his career by being a healthy scratch down the stretch in the playoffs, Martin really contemplated during the offseason whether he wanted to keep playing and chase a job.
Agent Ben Hankinson did his due diligence, of course, and tried to land Martin a gig, but Martin didn’t want to accept any professional tryout offers and didn’t want to continue his career in Europe.
“Hank, he’s always working and doing his job, but I think he knew I was already at a place where I thought I was going to be done,” Martin said. “At the end of the summer, I was pretty OK mentally. It’s still different, especially once the season starts, you know? You’re kind of like, Am I supposed to be out there? What am I supposed to be doing? I can still do that.
“After all, this is the game I love, what I’ve done forever, and I just enjoyed the guys and have so many great memories, so it’s hard to put into words how I feel. I do think a lot about it, the way that it went, last year being up and down and injured, the bittersweetness of losing to Pittsburgh, my former team, in the Stanley Cup. You say you don’t care, but that was tough.
“You want to finish out the way you want to finish out. But … I’m OK. It’s been kind of nice spending more time with family and with friends.”
Martin has spent a lot of time at his cabin on Gull Lake. He organized a group of friends to travel to St. Cloud a few weeks ago to watch former Gophers captain and teammate Grant Potulny coach for Northern Michigan. He took his girlfriend, Kara, to the Phish concert in Las Vegas. He’s vacationed in Vail, Colo., and went to Italy. He has been mostly living in Kara’s tiny one-bedroom apartment in St. Paul because his sister, Leah, her boyfriend and their dog, Blue, lives in his downtown Minneapolis townhome along the Mississippi River.
“So, I’ve been bouncing around,” Martin said, laughing. “I’m looking at houses. Well, I’m supposed to do that. It’s been a slow, slow process, but we’re getting to that point.”
It’s the teammates he’ll miss the most.
He considers himself privileged that he got to learn from guys like Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer in New Jersey, that he got to play with superstars like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in Pittsburgh, that he shared a locker room with, in his eyes, future Hall of Famers Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau in San Jose.
And, he played with one special Gophers group that will be lifelong friends.
“He doesn’t forget anybody. He could play 14 years in the NHL, but you know what, I went to high school and college with these guys and I’m not going to forget them,” said former Gophers associate coach Mike Guentzel, who coached Martin and was blown away when more than a decade ago he came to his two oldest boys’ high-school graduations. “I’ll tell you what, if it wasn’t for him, that facility upgrade at the U would be a lot further behind. That’s the kind of person he is. He was a major, major part in giving and recruiting to give. The last six or seven years he made my job at the U a lot easier because of not only being a good player and being a proud alumni, but what he was able to give to us.”
Shine A Ligh7 is his passion project, though.
He has seen mental-health issues personally affect family, friends and teammates. He worries about bullying and depression, and how that can make people, especially young people, consider drugs or suicide.
“I’m still deciding what to do next, but the foundation will be the priority for me now and whether it be trying to provide some kind of service or just do what we’re doing right now with the three beneficiaries that we have,” Martin said.
Martin, after studying what friends like Matt Cullen and Mark Parrish do for children, started the foundation two years ago. Money raised goes to the Washburn Center for Children, the Domestic Abuse Project, where his sister is a social worker, and Camp Confidence in Brainerd.
“Mental health is becoming something that we’re seeing it affecting people a lot more,” Martin said. “More people have noticed and the stigma of it being a weakness, that bothers me and it’s something I wanted to bring and shine a light on and bring attention to.
“It’s just not kids. Even the guys we played with in the NHL who have concussions or the guys that come back from war and have PTSD or trouble with head injuries and mental health, I want them to either have somebody to talk to or a program where you can find help and make sure that you don’t go unnoticed. Mental health or depression has run in my family. And I have a big family and a couple have taken their lives, so it’s always been something that I’ve seen and wished that there’s a way that we can help and bring more awareness to it.
Martin is a huge music guy. In fact, the name of the foundation stems from the Rolling Stones song, Shine a Light, with Martin’s uniform No. 7 substituted for the ‘T.”
He has held two big musical fundraisers at the famous First Avenue in Minneapolis, and so many of his former teammates have come to Minnesota for the events. Burns came to the first one.
“I think he called me about 70 times in a row just to make sure I got on the plane,” the often absent-minded Burns joked. “But I knew it meant so much to him, so I wouldn’t have missed it.”
But Martin says, “The big rock stars are the kids that come in, and they share their story and why the Washburn Center is so important to them or why Camp Confidence helps their life. People can come get that message and see and hear what they’re supporting, and these kids are the ones that really kind of knock it out of the park and are the reason we’re there.”
As you can tell, Martin’s teammates are right.
He’s a special person, and he thanks his upbringing from parents Bev and Dale for that.
“I’m very fortunate for my parents. They’re very loving and caring and raised me to, I think for the most part, be good, be humble and work hard and just have that mentality to treat other people the way you want to be treated,” Martin said. “I still remember this one day when I was young where I had this basketball and hockey tournament on the same day. One was in Minneapolis, the other in Grand Rapids. And my dad would be going, hiking back and forth while my mom and sister would be doing their own thing.
“So all those trips, you don’t realize until you get older how much time and effort that they put into letting you chase your dreams. That’s what put me down this path.”
Martin wants to experience that for himself.
“I definitely want to start a family, so I don’t know if that means I would be the stay-at-home dad, but that would be fine with me,” he said, laughing. “But there’s no doubt, I’ll miss hockey. You’ll always miss it because you’ll never get that feeling back of being able to do something you love in front of people. I love the game and I think it will always be a part of me. And I’ll be part of it again, maybe with kids and some youth programs.
“I’ll see what I can do to help them out. That’d be fun, I think.”
