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Touted NHL prospect Brady Martin launching career down on the farm. Another farm
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- Touted NHL prospect Brady Martin launching career down on the farm. Another farm
Brady Martin knows how to tend to chickens and dairy cows, and he can survive dawn to dusk on a tractor. He's done those things for much of his life.
Martin knows how to play hockey, too. Boy, does he know how to play hockey.
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But there's a lot about life off the farm and the day-to-day, game-to-game and year-to-year life of a professional athlete that Martin doesn't know, even as a high first-round NHL draft pick with star potential.
That's why he's starting his first full pro season … well … down on the farm.
"Look, he's 19 years old," said Karl Taylor, the head coach of the Milwaukee Admirals and by extension the headmaster of the Nashville Predators ' finishing school. "He's looking for his first apartment. You know, he's never lived on his own. There's lots of things he's going to deal with that we're going to support him with.
Milwaukee Admirals center Brady Martin (28) watches the action on the ice at practice Thursday, October 1, 2026, at the UWM Panther Arena in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
"It's a change. The guys that come from Europe, they've been playing against men for a while now, and some of them have been living on their own already. The guys that come from college hockey, they've been living on their own already.
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"The guys that come from junior … really it's their first time dealing with those things. There's no billet parents anymore."
Martin was the fifth pick of the 2025 NHL Draft but skipped the red carpet.
He finished his chores at Creek Edge Farms in Elmira, Ontario, in the southeast part of the province, with his family. Two hundred fifty dairy cows didn't much care which team chose him or when.
That's been Martin's life in summertime, farming with a little fishing, hunting and golf squeezed in. Then in wintertime his focus shifted to hockey .
Martin played the 2023-24 and '24-25 seasons in juniors for the Soo Greyhounds in the Ontario Hockey League. He also was a member the Team Canada squads that won the 2025 U18 world championship (two goals in the title game) and took bronze in the 2026 world championships (four goals and six assists in six games).
Due to minimum age rules in the AHL, the Predators had limited options for Martin last season, so they returned him to juniors in Sault Ste. Marie. He played three games for Nashville early and then three playoff games with the Admirals after his 19thbirthday. He managed his first NHL point and first pro goal in that limited action.
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Whether Martin would start 2026-27 with the Predators again was a hot topic of training camp but one he tried not to get wrapped up in.
"Yeah, I was a high draft pick, but that's not what I like to be known by," said Martin, who comes across as friendly and quick with a smile. "Just a regular person. I play hockey and love playing hockey.
"Obviously, that's the goal, you want to play in the NHL, but everyone has a different road, so I think this is about what's best for me right now, to just develop a bit more."
Martin scored an assist in the Admirals' season-opening win in Rockford. The home portion of the schedule begins at 6 p.m. Oct. 10 against the Grand Rapids Griffins at the UWM Panther Arena.
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"I think it's just the minutes I'm going to be getting," Martin said of the benefit to starting in Milwaukee. "Me in Nashville. I don't think I would have played that much, and I think down here you get more puck touches, lots of practice, lots of games. Just playing a lot more minutes is going to help my game a lot."
There's also something to be said for easing into the spotlight that will follow Martin if he lives up to Nashville's hopes.
"If he's starting here, and he is, then his mistakes are here," Taylor said. "He's going to make mistakes just like all their players, and they're not going to be on the 9 o'clock news like they would be in the National Hockey League.
"So we want to help him progress, learn how to be a pro, how to train, how to eat, how to do all the things he's learning just off the ice, but also tighten his game up in the areas so that his elite skill set will be coming to the top and he'll be able to show that more because the other things are gone."
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The quick scouting report on Martin is this: A 6-foot, right-shot center, he sees plays developing and reacts quickly, moves the puck well and has a great shot. Martin is the type of player who can drive an offense and score a lot of goals. He works hard and loves to compete.
Martin can't even begin to guess where he is on the learning curve.
"I'm developing every day, and I think I'm learning new stuff every day," he said. "I'm in pro hockey, so I think I've just got to pick up a couple pro habits, and I think I can develop a lot more."
To help in that, Martin has gravitated toward players such as Tanner Molendyk , Andrew Gibson and Oasiz Weisblatt, all of whom went through in 2025-26 what he is experiencing now. All made mistakes, all learned and all progressed.
Milwaukee Admirals center Brady Martin (28) skates with the puck at practice Thursday, October 1, 2026, at the UWM Panther Arena in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
"It's all part of the process," Taylor said. "That's what we ask of all our players is to help each other through figuring out all the challenges."
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Although a defenseman, Molendyk may be the closest comparison to Martin. Both are small-town Canadians who came in as highly touted first-round picks who were close to making the NHL club in his first season. They even roomed together in training camp.
"I think it's just every minute really matters," Molendyk said. That's the most valuable lesson he learned in his first year as a pro that he has tried to share with Martin.
"You can't take really any minute off, a shift off. And life."
The game and reality all come at a 19-year-old quickly.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Touted NHL prospect Brady Martin launching career down on the farm. Another farm
