Claimed: Emil Martinov Biography

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Who's Emil Martinov?

Meeting the 17-year old playing for the VHLM's Las Vegas Aces.

Martinov with the U18 Czech Republic National Hockey Team during practice.

Overview

He's no top prospect. Emil Martinov, Bulgarian by origin, native of the city of Varna, has had a difficult road towards his dream in playing professional ice hockey. Whether if it's the unconventional background that Martinov has emerged from, or the adversity he had to face along the way. However, what is in the past, is in the past. What happens now is that Martinov is now a player in the Aces organization.

 

Name: Emil Martinov

DOB: August 26, 1999 (Aged 17)

Place of Birth: Varna, Bulgaria

Nationality: Bulgarian & Czech (Plays for the Czech Republic Internationally)

Position: Defence

Shoots: Right

Height: 6’2”

Weight: 204 Pounds

Youth Team: HC Ceske Budejovice U20 (Czech U20 League)

 

Early Life

Martinov was born in Varna, Bulgaria, to Adela and Yulian Martinov and was the second youngest of his four siblings. While he was not exposed to hockey until he was 8 years old, Martinov was a natural athlete, excelling in soccer/football and tennis. However, a vacation to Helsinki, Finland, introduced the sport of Ice Hockey to the young Martinov. After watching a game between HIFK and TPS in the SM-Liiga, Martinov was fascinated by the speed, physicality and skill of the sport and seemingly dropped his promising football career to pursue a career in hockey.

 

However, ice hockey in Bulgaria is not a popular sport, with the National Bulgarian Hockey Team composing mainly of Division III NCAA athletes and former Junior B players. Martinov learnt this the hard way when he had decided to watch the Bulgarian National Team compete against the Turkish National Team only to barely scrape out a 6-5 win in overtime. Compared to the game he had watched back in Finland, on top of the various overseas matches he had seen on television between various KHL teams and Czech Extraliga teams, the Bulgaria-Turkey game might as well have been a scrimmage in practice. Despite the lack of access to proper hockey, Martinov trained regardless, eventually moving to Sofia to stay with his uncle to train alongside of the one of the local teams: CSKA Sofia. Even though CSKA Sofia was a professional ice hockey team and is obviously not the most skilled, Martinov had to find time to train in order to play at a professional level and typically found former professionals who lived in Bulgaria to train him on both his skating, stickhandling and mental abilities. Of course, Martinov also had to balance his education as well, and was eventually forced to ask his uncle to pay his expenses so Martinov could travel to Russia for additional hockey training. However, once the countless hours of training as a youth were completed, Martinov was ready to compete.

 

Despite being several years underage, Martinov was a dominating presence on CSKA Sofia's blueline. At the age of 14, Martinov was already logging an average of 20:41 in ice time, playing against men who were easily two decades and physically more mature than Martinov. However, this did not deter him, and because of his performance, Martinov attracted attention from across of Eastern Europe, predominantly from the Russian MHL, the Slovak Extraliga, the Belorussian Extraleague, the Serbian Hockey League and the Czech 2.liga. While the promises of more playing time were the arguments used by the smaller leagues, Martinov is a natural competitor, wanted to play at the best and highest level that was possible. All signs pointed to the Czech 2.liga, where approximately four teams were vying for Martinov’s signature.

 

In the end, it was HC Ceske Budejovice who won him over. Martinov was signed to a 3-year, being paid $75,000 per season. While Martinov was not prepared for the huge jump from the Bulgarian League to a professional Czech League, nevertheless, he accepted the offer and was able to join the team at the end of CSKA Sofia’s season.

 

The Czech Leagues

It was difficult to adapt to the Czech Leagues for Martinov. Struggling to crack HC Ceske Budjovice’s roster, and their somewhat weak defensive core, Martinov was quickly outclassed as he was seemingly rushed to play against much tougher competition. In just 12 games played, he had scored zero goals, had three assists and was a -11 rating. What went wrong? Speculation was that Martinov was simply not prepared, and that his dominance in the Bulgarian Hockey League was either a product of the league’s poor opposition against Martinov or the fact Martinov wasn’t playing to the best of his abilities.

 

Martinov during his short tenure with HC Ceske Budjovice’s main club.

 

Regardless, management was still somewhat content with Martinov’s performance, and after 13 games played, agreed to send the youngster down to their U20 club. That is where Martinov flourished. Even though he was a 15-year old playing against players who were three, four even five years older than him, Martinov showed off his ability to play defence and still contribute at a somewhat decent rate offensively. In just 27 games played with HC Ceske Budjovice U20, Martinov had potted 2 goals, raked up 10 assists and had a rating of +/- rating of 8. He was playing on the club’s 2^nd Even Strength Defensive Pairing, 1^st Unit Penalty Kill and 2^nd Unit Powerplay. And his game only improved from there, posting 18 points in his second season with the U20 club and 23 in his third season.

 

Late Teens

It was in Martinov’s late teens where his notoriety began to rise. Since his mother, Adela Martinov, was born in the Czech Republic and had been a permanent Czech resident the majority of her life, Martinov had automatically been granted Czech Citizenship upon his birth. After countless seasons playing in the Czech Republic, the IIHF deemed that Martinov was also eligible to play for the Czech National Hockey Team.

 

While there were many other right shot defensemen in the Czech Republic who were arguably better than Martinov, what the U18’s coaches loved from Martinov were three things: Martinov’s defensive ability, his physicality and his grit. Despite multiple flashy defensemen easily surpassing Martinov’s ability to contribute in the offensive zone, it was Martinov’s ability to anchor down and break up oppositions’ plays that saw him named to the Czech Republic’s U18 National Team for the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament. Relegated mostly to 3^rd Pairing and Penalty Killing, Martinov was unable to show off his decent offensive upside, but performed well against players who had been playing since birth and had the privilege of being constantly exposed to hockey.

 

It was there when Martinov had been contacted by his agent about potentially moving overseas to play minor hockey in a league called the VHLM. While Martinov had never heard of this league before, it was quickly explained to him that even though Martinov’s current club in the Czech Republic was prepared to sign him to a long term contract, that his play in the U20 league had drawn interest from multiple junior leagues in both Sweden, Finland, Russia, Germany, Canada, the United States and Slovakia. It was the VHLM’s obscurity and potential that drew Martinov to the league however.

 

Martinov with the National Czech U18 Hockey Team at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup.

 

Eventually, Martinov agreed with his agent to finish up to the end of his contract with his current club and head overseas to North America to pursue a contract with the VHLM teams. As an unsigned free agent on a continent he had never been to before, overwhelmed was one word you could use to describe the way Martinov had been feeling. Confused was another and panicked was definitely a feeling he felt. Not only did Martinov have limited English skills despite having a strong linguistics background, but he did not know the social norms of the continent and did not know his way around despite the best efforts of his agent.

 

The Future

Martinov is a curious case. He comes from a non-traditional market, started hockey later than most, and had been moving seemingly across all of Eastern Europe to find harder competition to further his growth. While his bruising defensive skills combined with a mobile skating ability and great puck moving skills make him out to be a solid defenseman in the VHLM, could he eventually make it to the VHL? That is the bigger question.

 

Projected to go in the 2^nd Round of the 55^th VHLM Dispersal Draft as a top end defensive talent, Martinov’s only concern is how his offensive ability will translate to a much tougher league. However, Martinov has shown flashes of greatness during his short time with the Las Vegas Aces, playing in five games and recording two assists.

 

Could we see a defensive phenomenon come from Bulgaria? The very first top end prospect? Perhaps. Time can only tell. Until then, Martinov is just a kid from Varna who is in the process of making his dream of playing professional hockey, a reality.

Edited May 16, 2017 by Guest