Often, it’s a reward for how hard he forechecks and how he’s able to get his stick on pucks and win battles, which leads to opportunities. His 10 points in 11 playoff games is tied with Sebastian Aho in team scoring through two rounds. But with Andrei Svechnikov, Max Pacioretty and Teuvo Teravainen all out, the Canes needed players to step up and for the proverbial playoff heroes to emerge. Usually, anything Martinook adds offensively is a bonus. Martinook and Jordan Staal are the Canes' top penalty-killing forwards. He plays on the top unit for a Carolina team that finished second in the regular season in penalty-kill percentage and is first so far in the playoffs with a whopping 90% success rate. He is worth it alone for his penalty-killing prowess. But there isn’t a single team in this league with 12 forwards better than Martinook. Using almost half of that on a 30 year old grinder with a two-year commitment understandably makes you pause. Last August for reference, 24 teams had less than $5 million of cap space. That’s the kind of thing that makes you question what every team is doing with their cap space. There likely weren't many people across the league who doubted Martinook was a solid NHL player, but at $1.8 million this season and next, that proved too rich for any team to take on. We have discussed this before but it’s worth repeating: Jordan Martinook was on waivers this season. This week, we take a look at five players who have stood out through the first two rounds of the playoffs. Welcome back to Insights and Observations of the NHL playoffs, where only seven teams remain after the Carolina Hurricanes eliminated the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night.
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