VOORHEES, N.J. - Danick Martel will get his NHL shot.
It just won't be in orange and black.
Martel, who made his NHL debut with the Flyers last season over a four-game stint, was plucked off waivers Saturday by the Lightning.
Of all the players placed on waivers Friday across the league, Martel was the only one claimed. Cole Bardreau, T.J. Brennan, Greg Carey and Phil Varone all cleared and were assigned to AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley, along with Radel Fazleev.
Martel was an undrafted product in the organization. The speedy 5-foot-8, 162-pound winger put up nice numbers at the AHL level after a 102-point 2014-15 campaign (48 goals, 54 assists) at the junior level. He scored 20 or more goals in each of his three seasons with the Phantoms. Overall, he had 120 points in 199 games at Lehigh Valley, with a career-high 25 goals and plus-16 rating last season.
"He's a good player," Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said Saturday after practice. "It's a good opportunity for him, he's worked hard and you hate to lose a player like that out of the organization, but that's the business."
If Martel has a future at the NHL level, it will be as a bottom-six forward. His diminutive size makes it difficult for him to fill such a role that requires a bit more physicality and defensive focus.
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But the 23-year-old brings positional versatility and some dynamic scoring ability. The Flyers, however, have grown their forward depth significantly and Martel ultimately did not seem seriously in the picture.
How much Martel actually plays and how long he stays in Tampa Bay is a whole different question. He joins a Lightning team that finished the 2017-18 regular season with an Eastern Conference-best 113 points and fell one series victory shy of a Stanley Cup Final appearance.
#Bolts GM Julien BriseBois on claiming Danick Martel: "He's a player we'd had on our radar for a while going back to his last year of junior when he was a free agent...He kind of fits our DNA in the sense that he's really fast, he's skilled and he's tenacious."— Bryan Burns (@BBurnsNHL) September 22, 2018
The Flyers' roster now stands at 35 and it must be trimmed to 23 by the Oct. 4 season opener.
Forwards (20)
Travis Konecny, RW, No. 11
Michael Raffl, RW, No. 12
Sean Couturier, C, No. 14
Jori Lehtera, C, No. 15
Wayne Simmonds, RW, No. 17
Nolan Patrick, C, No. 19
Taylor Leier, LW, No. 20
Scott Laughton, C, No. 21
Dale Weise, RW, No. 22
James van Riemsdyk, LW, No. 25
Claude Giroux, RW, No. 28
Corban Knight, C, No. 38
Tyrell Goulbourne, LW, No. 39
Jordan Weal, C, No. 40
Mikhail Vorobyev, C, No. 46
Oskar Lindblom, LW, No. 54
Nicolas Aube-Kubel, RW, No. 62
Pascal Laberge, C, No. 75
Carsen Twarynski, LW, No. 81
Jakub Voracek, RW, No. 93
Defensemen (10)
Radko Gudas, No. 3
Samuel Morin, No. 5
Travis Sanheim, No. 6
Robert Hagg, No. 8
Ivan Provorov, No. 9
Christian Folin, No. 26
Andrew MacDonald, No. 47
Shayne Gostisbehere, No. 53
Mark Friedman, No. 59
Philippe Myers, No. 61
Goaltenders (5)
Michal Neuvirth, No. 30
Alex Lyon, No. 34
Brian Elliott, No. 37
Anthony Stolarz, No. 41
Carter Hart, No. 79
