Meet the new Blackhawks: What’s left in the tank for Alec Martinez?

Amidst the flurry of activity in the 2024 Chicago Blackhawks offseason, the move that is arguably flying most under the radar is the acquisition of veteran defenseman Alec Martinez. Signed to a one-year, $4 million contract, Martinez provides excellent depth and stellar value despite his age. Known for his complete defensive play, subtle offensive tendencies, and transitional awareness, Martinez brings a wealth of experience, leadership abilities, and a sorely needed winning mentality to a young team looking to find its footing.

As a left-handed shot, Martinez can provide some stability to the second pairing that struggled to find success in the prior season. He started his career with the Los Angeles Kings and was the stalwart of defensive consistency: he ate big minutes, played 2-plus minutes a night on the penalty kill, and was one of the most reliable defensemen through the neutral zone and in his own end. While never an offensive dynamo, he carved himself out a role as a complimentary point-producer while also being one of the premiere defensive defenseman in the league.

After Martinez was traded to Vegas during the 2019-2020 season, Martinez continued his success by winning another Cup while still playing big minutes, but there were noted changes to his role. Martinez saw a higher focus on his 5-on-5 value, as his average ice time declined from 22:34 in the 2020-21 season to 19:32 in the 2021-22 season, largely due to a decline special teams play. To capitalize on his defensive skills and compensate for his declining offense, Martinez was paired with Alex Pietrangelo as a stay-at-home partner to prevent defensive gaffes. While age has cost Martinez a good deal of effectiveness on offense and in transition, his defense has remained high-end.

The data backs up the eye test as well. Last season, per All Three Zones, Martinez struggled to make a positive impact anywhere on the ice except in the defensive zone, as detailed in the chart below:

While Martinez scored 17 points (4 G, 13 A) in 55 games, the offense wasn’t sustainable: it largely came from throwing shots on net, rather than Martinez generating open lanes himself or completing challenging passes.

Another sign of Martinez’s age is that his game now lacks the strength and physicality it used to have. Natural Stat Trick shows that, despite Martinez having 70 percent of his starts in the offensive and neutral zone, he had 21 giveaways at 5-on-5 compared to only 7 takeaways. He’s consistently knocked as well, challenging his ability to produce effectively, taking 81 hits in a limited amount of total games, good for top 25% in hits taken per game of all full time defenseman.

The data from Natural Stat Trick also shows that Vegas’ possession metrics were mediocre with Martinez on the ice. His shot attempt share last season was only 43.84 percent, an extremely low mark for most NHLers. Initially viewed, it’s especially concerning because Martinez played on a competent playoff team that largely controlled the flow of the game, and he also played next to Pietrangelo, who posted a shot attempt share of 48.07 percent. Logic would suggest that Martinez’s struggles to produce actually affected Pietrangelo, who consistently had better possession metrics with almost every other partner. According to Dobber Sports, the only pairing with comparable possession numbers was Pietrangelo and Brayden McNabb in a very limited sample. Martinez doesn’t generate offense in the slightest.

While clearly on the low end, it’s important to note that shot attempt share without context can often be misleading. It’s simply a calculation of shot attempts for divided by shot attempts against. While Martinez doesn’t generate shots, or help his teammates to do so, he still prevents goals from being scored against at a higher rate than his teammates. Despite the nearly universally higher shot attempt percentage on other pairings, Pietrangelo sees a far worse balance of GF/GA despite the overwhelmingly positive possession numbers. Even with the imbalance in shot attempt percentage, the GF/GA ratio is actually swapped compared to expectation; more goals are scored than allowed when they’re on the ice.

While Martinez doesn’t generate shots, skewing his shot possession numbers negative, his goal prevention numbers are better than the others. This is in large part due to how great he is at limiting shot opportunities from the middle of the ice via shot and high-danger pass blocking. In terms of blocked shots, Martinez led the entire league in shots blocked at 3 per game (of players who skated in more than 50 games last season), per Statmuse. Despite not being physical, Martinez used positioning to push opponents to the outside and often challenged them to drive to the net on their own to get a shot on goal, and thus prevented close passing near the crease. He had only a 9.7 percent conversion rate on high-danger attempts against, good for top the top quarter of the league: of 186 attempts against, only 18 found their way to the back of the net. Overall, this means most of the shots against with Martinez on the ice are lower danger and thus had a lower probability of being a goal . It’s not necessarily representative of a No. 1 defenseman, but it’s still highly valued in the NHL.

Luckily for the Blackhawks, Martinez does not need to generate offense, he just needs to be a competent defender. With the assumption that Kevin Korchinski finds himself in Rockford for at least a portion of the upcoming season, there’s a big gap on the left side ripe for the picking, and the Blackhawks struggled to be a competent defensive team last season. They did not play with structure, lost the puck non-stop, played the majority of games in the defensive zone because there was an inability to break the puck out due to the lackluster offensive talent last season. With the acquisitions of players like Teuvo Teravainen and Tyler Bertuzzi, there should be enough offensive talent to keep the game in the neutral and offensive zones. But when the puck inevitably finds its way back to the defensive zone, it will be a relief for the entire organization to have another defender besides Vlasic and Jones who are comfortable shutting down high-danger plays and restricting opponent retrievals.

While Martinez doesn’t excel on the breakout, his ability to shut down plays and prevent goals will be enough of a win itself. This shut-down nature also lends itself to Martinez’ ability as a natural penalty killer, a role that the Blackhawks desperately need due to their paltry 27th PK ranking in the prior season.

Martinez’ leadership abilities and veteran knowledge also can’t be understated, either. With two Cups and consistent playoff experience in his career, he knows what it takes to win and can likely help the young players find more of a rhythm at the NHL level. With the likely elevation of Ethan Del Mastro, and Wyatt Kaiser, and the potential for both Kevin Korchinski and Artyom Levshunov to see NHL minutes, or at least training camp minutes, there’s ample room for growth. One of the largest concerns last year on the defense was creating a workable defensive structure and consistent planning, but that identity was never defined. Bringing in Martinez should prioritize positioning, structure, and appropriate cycles which weren’t often seen in the prior year. Martinez should be able to help develop a better team system that will see a better understanding of coverage, positioning, and breaking up plays. The offense can wait, especially for the younger players. Developing knowledge of when to deviate from assignments, when to implement certain coverages, and what position to defend from will plant the seeds for when the Blackhawks are again ready to compete.

While Blackhawks fans may still harbor a grudge over the 2014 playoffs, Martinez is a superb add. While older, Martinez is far from an echo of a bygone age. The biggest appeal of the signing is he’s not just a veteran plug like, say, Nick Foligno — he is genuinely still an impact player who can be a foundational piece of this year’s defensive corps. While traditionally a reduction in skating speed and agility precedes the decline of most defensemen, Martinez doesn’t base his game around speed or elite skating, but rather elite positioning, and elite shot-blocking ability. Whether or not Martinez will get another contract after this year remains to be seen, but the Blackhawks know what they’re getting in this contract – a defensively reliable player who can grow their young talent, and still make an impact.