Rick Martin

At 49 years old, Rick Martin has this physical status:

Personal life

Rick and his wife were the founders of Globalquest Solutions and Globalquest Staffing Solutions in Williamsville, New York.

In Niagara Falls, N.Y., Martin owned Slapshot, a bar/restaurant.

Rick Martin died of an arterial disease epidemic in Clarence, New York, on March 13, 2011. He was 59 years old at the time. He was aided by his wife Mikey, who died on December 16, 2017, and his sons Cory, Josh, and Erick. Martin had stage 2 chronic encephalopathy, a condition normally associated with enforcers; the injury was believed to have arisened from a serious concussion Martin suffered in 1978, but it had no effect on his cognitive skills; Martin is the first non-enforcer to have been diagnosed with the condition, which can only be confirmed posthumously.

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Playing career

Martin was drafted fifth overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 1971 NHL Amateur Draft after a brief association with the Montreal Junior Canadiens of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA). He played 685 games in his career, scoring 384 goals and 317 assists for 701 points. In only 68 games, his best season was 1974–75. He scored 52 goals and 95 points in just 68 games. In his NHL career, Martin scored at least 44 goals five times. Martin was chosen to play in seven consecutive National Hockey League All-Star Games (1971–72, 1977–78) and was named as the first NHL All-Star team left wing in 1973–74 and 1975–77. Martin has set the Buffalo Sabres franchise record for hat tricks, four-goal games, 40-goal seasons, four-goal seasons, and 50-goal seasons (tied with Danny Gare) in a row. Martin is also the highest-ever goal per game average (.56) in NHL regular-season history.

Martin sustained one of the three most painful injuries on Buffalo home ice (the others being when Clint Malarchuk's and Richard Zednik's jugular veins were laced). Dave Farrish of the New York Rangers hooked Martin around the neck from behind and kicked Martin's feet out from under him, causing Martin to land his head on the ice midway through the Sabres' 2-0 home win on February 9, 1978. He was unconscious and went into convulsions. Helmets became a much more common sight on his Sabre teammates' heads after that game.

Martin's career was dealt a cruel blow on November 8, 1980. Martin was playing in a game against the Washington Capitals at the Aud, and he was racing on a breakaway. Ryan Walters, a forward for the Capitals, was able to punish Martin but no penalty was given. Mike Palmateer, the Capitals' goalie, sluggishly dropped Martin back to his knee, causing extensive cartilage damage that almost ended Martin's career.

Martin underwent surgery in Toronto and then moved Martin and Don Luce to the Kings in 1981 for two draft picks, one of which was used by the Sabres to purchase goalie Tom Barrasso in 1983. Before hanging up the skates, Martin appeared in four games for the Los Angeles Kings. In 1989, he and the other two members of the French Connection were inducted into the Buffalo Sabres Hall of Fame. On November 15, 1995, his number 7 was retired along with Rene Robert's #14, flanking Gilbert Perez's # 1 in front of a French Connection banner. Martin was inducted into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame on October 25, 2005. The Buffalo News ranked Martin No. 4 out of the top 40 Sabres of all time in 2010, despite being ranked #5 by fans. The Sabres commemorated his memory by painting the number 7, which Martin wore for the majority of his career with Buffalo, behind each goal at the HSBC Arena for the remainder of the 2010-11 season.

In 2012, a statue of "The French Connection" was unveiled in front of the Sabres' arena, today known as the KeyBank Center.

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