Calvin Martin’s next game will be on university ice
When Calvin Martin took to the Memorial Centre ice March 7 with the Mississauga Steelheads he had no idea it would be his last OHL game. Five days later the OHL suspended, and later cancelled, the rest of its season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“No one could have come up with this ending to his OHL career,” said Martin, 20, a Peterborough native. “It’s quite crazy.”
At first, he said it didn’t seem real.
“Then days go by and you realize you are not going back. Just one day everybody left and you didn’t really get to say your goodbyes, which kind of sucks,” he said.
Not only was his last game in Peterborough but the Steelheads would have faced the Petes in the playoffs.
“It’s kind of crazy that my last game in the OHL was in Peterborough.
It’s kind of cool in a way,” he said. “I did have a good amount of friends and family there because we didn’t know if it was going to be my last game there or not. The way the standings looked it looked like we might play Peterborough but we didn’t know for sure. I’ll always remember playing there, for sure.”
The Petes would have been favoured but Mississauga did split the season series with them 2-2.
“It would have been a fun playoff series, that is for sure,” he said.
Martin will continue playing hockey while attending Queen’s University in Kingston in the fall. He recently committed to the Gaels’ hockey program.
“Throughout the season their head coach Brett Gibson reached out to me a couple of times,” said Martin. “I had a visit and it just seemed like the right fit. The right hockey program and the right school. It’s a great education and a great hockey program so it made it an easy decision.”
He also knows a couple of OHL grads who have committed to Queen’s including Kingston Frontenacs captain and Hastings native Jakob Brahaney as well as Flint Firebirds goalie Anthony Popovich.
Martin started his overage season with the Sarnia Sting and an open mind to his future.
“It was my plan to do my best on the ice to try to get a pro contract but I knew U sports was definitely great hockey and education is important to myself and my family, too. I knew U sports was probably my next step in my hockey career.”
The Sting had too many overage players, as OHL teams are limited to three, so he was dealt to Mississauga after eight games. The six-foot, 188-pound winger scored 19 goals while adding 21 assists for 40 points in 56 games this season.
The Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds selected Martin in the sixth round of the 2015 OHL Priority Selection from the Minor Midget AAA Petes. He played nine games with them in 2015-16 while playing primarily with the OJHL’s Stouffville Spirit. In 2016-17 he played 39 games for the Soo. He played on a strong Greyhounds team and found it difficult to secure regular playing time so 19 games into the 2017-18 season he asked for his release. He finished the season playing 28 games for the QMJHL’s Val d’Or Foreurs.
He accepted a free agent invitation to Sarnia’s training camp and cracked the roster for the 2018-19 season. He played all 68 games, scoring 14 goals and adding 23 assists for 37 points. He topped that total by three points in the shortened 2019-20 campaign.
He has no complaints other than the abrupt end to his final season.
“When I look back on it there are so many great memories and great times and I’m thankful for my career and all the opportunities I had,” he said.