Porter Martone is going from NCAA freshman to an NHL playoff race. That precedent is rarer than you think.

Top Flyers prospect Porter Martone will make his NHL debut Tuesday against the Capitals in Washington, and when he does, he will do something very few players have done over the last 25 years.

While a record 248 players with NCAA hockey experience, or 34% of the league, made NHL opening-night rosters this season, a much smaller percentage of them went directly to the NHL in the same season that they finished their college careers. Add the qualifier of doing so in your draft year, which knocks out players like Ryan Leonard (2025), Cole Caufield (2021), Cale Makar (2019), and Chris Kreider (2012), and the list whittles down to only 11 names this millennium, according to Hockey Reference. (Charlie McAvoy joined the Boston Bruins for the 2016-17 playoffs but made a brief pit stop in the AHL first.)

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Martone will become the 12th player ― and just the sixth freshman — to accomplish this rare feat, although it is likely to become much more common in the coming years with more top Canadian Junior prospects taking advantage of the 2024 rule change that allows players to play in the Canadian Hockey League while preserving their NCAA eligibility. To add further context to what the Flyers and Martone are attempting, of the players on this list, only Zeev Buium — and McAvoy, if you count him ― played truly consequential NHL games in the year they were drafted.

Ahead of Martone’s debut, here’s a look at how the 11 others fared after jumping from college hockey to the NHL.

After two banner years at Denver, which included winning an NCAA title in 2024 and being named a Hobey Baker Award finalist in 2025, Buium turned pro with the Wild last spring. Minnesota threw Buium right into its first-round playoff series against the Vegas Golden Knights despite him never playing an NHL regular-season game, and Buium notched an assist and a minus-1 rating in four games. Buium was sent to Vancouver in December as part of the Quinn Hughes trade.

The 5-foot-8, 172-pound Brindley got into one regular-season game for a bad Columbus team after his 2022-23 season ended at Michigan. Brindley, who had won the Big Ten Player of the Year award that season as a sophomore, is currently a depth player with the Colorado Avalanche.

The New Brunswick native also played in one NHL game two seasons ago, in Carolina’s meaningless season finale while the Hurricanes rested most of their regulars. Nadeau, who had 46 points in 37 games during his lone season at Maine, is currently lighting up the American Hockey League with the Chicago Wolves (25 goals, 51 points).

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Part of a trio of Michigan sophomores who turned pro after the Wolverines were upset in the Frozen Four by former Flyer Bobby Brink and Denver, Johnson played nine games and registered three assists for a listless Blue Jackets team in 2021-22. After racking up 24 goals and 57 points in 68 games last season, the 2021 first-rounder has struggled this season in Columbus with just 21 points in 69 games.

Beniers jumped right from his sophomore year at Michigan into the NHL and immediately looked the part, scoring three goals and compiling nine points in 10 games for the already eliminated Kraken. He won the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s Rookie of the Year in 2022-23, but while remaining an effective two-way player, the 23-year-old has yet to reach those heights since.

The No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 draft, Power signed with the Sabres following the conclusion of his sophomore year at Michigan. He played eight games that season, scoring two goals and adding an assist. Power, who has yet to materialize into the dominant No. 1 defenseman many projected, has eight goals, 26 points, and a plus-6 rating in 73 games for the playoff-bound Sabres.

After averaging almost a point per game across two seasons in Ann Arbor, Hughes joined a struggling Canucks squad late in the 2018-19 season. In five games that year, he notched three assists, and the recent gold medalist now lays claim to being the second-best defenseman in hockey.

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The super-skilled Mittelstadt left Minnesota after a freshman season that saw him tally 11 goals and 30 points in 34 games. Despite some initial size and strength questions, he made an immediate mark, scoring a goal and racking up five points in his first six NHL games. The 27-year-old, who has bounced around a bit, has averaged 49 points over the last four seasons and looks to have found a home as a winger on Boston’s second line alongside Pavel Zacha and Viktor Arvidsson.

It’s easy to forget that Colorado was bad for a few seasons just over a decade ago, with a 48-point campaign in 2016-17 serving as rock bottom. That year, Jost made the jump from North Dakota freshman star to the show. He scored one goal in six games as the Avs played out the string. The 28-year-old has carved out a solid career as a bottom-six checker and currently plies his trade in Nashville.

The four-time NHL All-Star played one accolade-filled season at Boston University before turning pro with the ’Yotes in 2017. Keller dished out two assists in his three-game pro cameo that year before finishing third in Calder Trophy voting the following season. A consistent 30-goal, 80-point player, Keller recently won Olympic gold with Team USA.

The almost 10-year gap between Turris and the next draft-year college player jumping straight into the NHL during a season tells you all you need to know about how much the developmental ladder and perception of the NCAA have changed over the last 20 years. Turris, the No. 3 overall pick in 2007, joined the Coyotes following his freshman season at Wisconsin and grabbed one assist in three games for then-coach Wayne Gretzky. Over his 14-year NHL career, he topped out with single-season career highs of 27 goals and 64 points.

While McAvoy has a slight asterisk since he played four AHL games before making his NHL debut, he’s worth a mention given that he jumped straight into the 2017 playoffs with the Bruins following his sophomore season at nearby BU. McAvoy’s promotion was forced by injury and veered from Boston’s initial plan, but he picked up three assists and earned six games worth of invaluable playoff experience. He has established himself as one of the league’s top defensemen and also won a gold medal with the U.S. in Milan.

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