The 2025-26 season reset Martino’s trajectory. He opened the year in Idaho, produced four points in three ECHL games, and returned to Texas, where the offense never came around: 12 points in 41 AHL games with a minus-7 rating, in a year limited to 44 total appearances. Development camp offered a more encouraging look. He competed hard in the battle work, going right at the 6-4 Rasmus Svartström in a fun size mismatch at 5-11, and he started on the top line in the closing mini game alongside Cameron Schmidt. The skill that made him a point-per-game AHL scoring threat has not gone anywhere. The question is whether the finishing and interior touches return with regular top-six minutes, because the tools-to-production gap was the story of his season. Dallas’s forward depth in Cedar Park got more crowded this spring with the Hryckowian and Fitzgerald signings, so nothing is handed to him. The watch item is September training camp and whether he reclaims a scoring-line role and power-play time out of the gate.

When Martino was drafted 73rd overall by the Stars in 2021, he just missed the eligibility cutoff for 2020 by two weeks. He put on a show as a USHL rookie in his draft year, with 56 points in 38 games.

The slight-framed 5-11, 161 lbs winger spent four years playing well in the NCAA before dominating this past season. Dallas has been slow-cooking Martino’s development, and that could prove fruitful for the undersized forward as he makes the professional jump.

Martino’s game centres around his quick-thinking and consistent ability to find open ice in dangerous areas. He’s a setup man first and foremost – but this past year Martino took a stride in his goal scoring, potting 25 goals among his 51 points in 39 games. The hope is that he can quickly adjust to AHL competition, and soon after step into the middle-six role he projects to fill with Dallas.

Martino signed a two-year, entry-level contract that will begin in 2025-26. He will report to the Texas Stars of the American Hockey League for the remainder of the 2024-25 season.