Vancouver Warriors forward Ryan Martel has figured out his recipe for success in the box and he’ll be running it back with Vancouver next season.
After a breakout season last year, Martel agreed to terms on a one-year contract with his hometown team.
The Aldergrove native wants to build off the success from last season and carry the momentum from their run at the end of the year into next season. He’s got another year of experience under his belt, which gives him more confidence, and playing at home in front of Warriors faithful, family and friends was a key factor in his re-signing.
“Getting to wear the Warriors jersey at home is always something I look forward to on the weekends and we have a really good dressing room with the guys, and I love being with them, we still talk in the summer in our group chats,” Martel said.
“I think playing at home is an unreal feeling that you always dream of. I wish the season was starting sooner, it can’t come fast enough.”
Martel had a career-high 73-point performance last season with 34 goals and 39 assists, shooting a career-best 116 shots and picking up 63 loose balls. He was third on the Warriors in points and tallied more points in one season than his previous five seasons combined (64).
The 26-year-old flourished under the leadership of the Warriors’ coaching staff in his sixth NLL season. Martel has matured since he was a rookie in 2018 and through his hard work and consistency gained the trust of the coaching staff playing all 18 games for the first time in his NLL career.
“I finally got full-time minutes and I was given some power play opportunity and I think last year I wasn’t on as tight of a leash as I have been when I was in and out of the lineup. Every year you’re gripping your stick tight, and you feel like you have to perform, and last year, [I’m] not saying I had a long leash, but having a bit more trust from the coaching staff definitely helps, and being able to play more minutes, I always knew I could do that, I just needed to get the time and it just worked out last year,” Martel said.
Warriors General Manager and Head Coach Curt Malawsky has coached Martel four of his six years in the NLL. Malawsky has praised Martel’s athleticism and could see the lefty forward’s growth in understanding the type of game that works for him and what the team needed him to do.
In addition to the trust between Martel and the coaching staff, Marty also attributes his success to playing a full season of summer ball last year in the WLA before the NLL season started. Martel played for the New Westminster Salmonbellies who went to the Mann Cup against Six Nations, giving him another opportunity to play against top-level NLL talent in important games which is invaluable experience.
Martel wanted to help his team in any way he could and with the Salmonbellies overloaded with lefty forwards, he did whatever he could to be on the floor. He played defence and took faceoffs and learning to do that under pressure helped him become a more versatile player and a better offensive player.
“As a lefty d-guy I’m playing against the righty o-guys, defending players like Lyle Thompson and Randy Staats in the Mann Cup. It is different watching an offence from the bench versus being in it on defence. You feel the strength of their picks, where they’re looking, but also knowing they want to go a different direction and how to be deceptive offensively, so I think it picking up on little tricks and stuff like that helps,” Martel said.
The Warriors incorporated Martel’s versatility into their game plans last season, having Martel take faceoffs to switch things up and he went 17-for-29 off the draw.
Martel is playing for the Salmonbellies again this summer and has been keeping the momentum from his best NLL season to the WLA. He has 23 points (9-14-23) through seven games with New Westminster and he’s earned first star of the game in week three with a six-point performance (3G, 3A) and a third star in week four tallying four goals and two assists.
He’s found his stride and he’s building on it — aiming for another strong performance next NLL season. He’s putting in the work during his 2024 WLA campaign and he’s already thinking ahead to training camp.
“I think just coming into camp in shape, ready to go and focused will help set me up for success. I’ve been talking with Bides [Adam Charalambides] over the summer, he’s with New West now so we sent each other a few clips of what we think we can do this summer. We were getting some good chemistry going at the end of the year last year in our two-man game, I think we complement each other really well – he can pretty much do it all with the ball and I’m good at setting picks for him and starting to carry it a little more on the outside,” Martel said.
For the fans counting down the days to the Warriors’ season and getting to see Air Martel take flight, Martel says the fans are an integral part of game nights at home.
“Keep cheering, be loud, we love that, we build off that. When I score goals, I love jumping into the glass and seeing fans cheering and banging on the glass and we definitely appreciate the support. When it gets loud in there it fires us up and I think that helped us go on our run there at the end of the year,” Martel said.