Paul Martin’s season followed in the footsteps of his most regular defensive partner, Brent Burns. Martin improved in just about every measurable capacity since the previous year, and that has to be at least partially attributed to the play of the man with whom Martin spent over 87% of his ice time. His rolling Corsi chart looks like we just took Burns’ chart and moved it down one percentage point. This isn’t too shocking, as the man who led the NHL in shots should probably have a higher rate of shot attempts by a fair margin.
Martin continued to be deployed in his capacity as the wookie’s handler this year, similar to the way he was used to shadow Kris Letang in Pittburgh.