Darche Talks Matt Martin, His New Role on ESPN Radio

It’s been a very busy Tuesday on Long Island. First, New York Islanders’ General Manager Mathieu Darche held his pre-draft press conference at 10 a.m.

Then, news exploded. The Hockey Hall of Fame named Zdeno Chara to its newest class.

A half hour later, the Islanders announced Matt Martin’s retirement, and his appointment as a special assistant to Darche.

Luckily, Darche appeared on ESPN Radio’s Don, Hahn, & Rosenberg Show shortly after the announcement, and he talked all things Martin.

Darche On His Impressions of Martin:

Darche first described how he first met Martin, and it wasn’t in the past few months. It was the beginning of Martin’s career, and the end of Darche’s:

“Well, the first thing is his first few years were my last few years playing, I had to make sure I wasn’t fighting him because he would have beaten me up. So I remember that from those first few years, he was intimidating. He had that long hair back then.”

Darche then outlined the hiring process and what he heard about Martin:

“Matt, like I love to see around the league, you know, people have always had great things to say about him. He’s retiring this year, so I met with him a couple of times. I really liked the conversations I had with him. It’s nice, sometimes, to have someone on your staff to have a guy that is recently retired. You see, like Toronto (now Pittsburgh) did that with Jason Spezza, like Montreal’s doing that with Vincent Lecavalier.

Having guys that I’ve played against, the guys that are now in the league, it’s always an asset. [Martin]’s a smart guy who wants to learn the management part of it. That’s what he’d like to do. I’m sure he’d love to be a GM one day, but for now it’s great for me to have a guy like him to lean on.”

On Martin’s Day-to-Day Roles:

After illustrating exactly why Darche hired Martin, he then described everything Martin’s going to do, and it’s an all-encompassing job:

“I’m going to have him involved in basically every facet [of the organization]. He’s going to be with us at the draft, and he’s going to be in our meetings. He’s here right now as we’re talking about the roster. We’ll have him do some amateur scouting, some pro scouting, and he’ll be going to Bridgeport.

So I’m very happy to have him, now that he has accepted to join our team, and he’s going to be a great addition.”

Thoughts & Analysis:

It’s extremely clear Martin’s here to work. He’s always been an extremely hard worker, and this will be no different. As Darche outlined, he’ll be doing everything that any executive does.

Something of a trial by fire for #17. It would not be a surprise if, like Spezza, he begins in this role, then shortly gains a promotion. While Darche reiterated that Chris Lamoriello and Steve Pellegrini remain safe, in a year or two, one of those seats could open, even Ryan Bowness could become a General Manager elsewhere. That’s where Martin would jump in.

Just for me personally, I can tell you all just from my year of dealing with him, Martin’s an incredibly smart person, as well as the amazing things about him as a human being that you all already know. There’s no question that he’ll crush this.