With the Arizona Coyotes 2015-16 season complete, it’s time to dive into each player’s performance and make a final tally on how they fared in the 2015-16 season.
Arizona Coyotes rookie Jordan Martinook captured the Jukka Nieminen Memorial Trophy in his first season with the club. That sums up his season in one sentence.
The Arizona Lottery Jukka Nieminen Memorial Trophy is given to the Hardest Working Player on the team as voted by the fans.
There are a lot of go-getters and even some guys who are far more try than skill on the Yotes’ roster, but there was only one choice for the award.
It was #48, Jordan Martinook.
Martinook’s surprise inclusion into the NHL roster mirrored the rise of forward Tobias Rieder a year before.
In fact, if you compare the two forwards rookie campaigns there are a lot of similarities, including both winning the Hardest Working Player award.
Rieder’s offensive potential is higher than Martinook’s, however #48 is pretty excellent defensively while still managing to be a net positive for his linemates in shot generation.
Jordan Martinook scored 9 goals and chipped in 15 assists for 24 points in his rookie season.
He played a good portion of the campaign on a line with red-hot Shane Doan and Brad Richardson, providing Head Coach Dave Tippett his most consistently productive line combination last season.
You could say they had a good rapport, as evidenced by the goal of the season:
It is unclear if the line will stay together this season. Despite that fact, an improvement on his rookie season numbers seems achievable for Martyman considering the influx of offensive talent that is likely to happen in training camp.
While in junior hockey, Martinook scored 40 goals in his final season with the Vancouver Giants. He has the tools to be more than a bottom six grinder which makes him a valuable tool in Tippett’s toolbox.
There are better players on the team.
Some have more skill. Others perhaps have a higher hockey IQ.
That happens when your team begins to fill up with names like Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Dylan Strome, and Max Domi instead of players like Nicklas Grossmann and Joe Vitale.
Next: 10 Best Coyotes Goals From the Second Half of 2015-16
Few will outwork or out-hustle Jordan Martinook, however.
He proved that in his rookie season, and so long as he continues that effort level, he’s the exact kind of piece GM’s seek out to form a winner around their superstars.