Matt Martin retires, leaving the NHL with just a few visor-less players

By Canadian Press on June 24, 2025.

Matt Martin announced his retirement Tuesday after 16 NHL seasons, all but two with the New York Islanders, a departure that leaves the league with only a few players who take the ice without a visor.

Martin was one of just five holdovers in the league who played without a visor on his helmet. His move to the front office as special assistant to Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche makes Ryan O’Reilly, Jamie Benn, Zach Bogosian and Ryan Reaves the only visor-less players remaining.

The NHL and NHL Players’ Association agreed in 2013 to mandate visors for newcomers, grandfathering them like helmets were decades earlier.

Asked about it in November 2023, Martin figured it would be a major adjustment to put a visor back on, especially given how much of his job on the ice was fighting. He played his final of 1,075 regular-season and playoff games without one on April 17.

“If they mandated it, I would’ve wore it,” Martin told The Associated Press at the time. “I took it off because of the role I play, and at the time, everybody that played that role didn’t wear it. I got used to that, so I never changed.”

Craig MacTavish, who played until 1997, was the NHL’s last helmetless player. Martin called Benn and O’Reilly “the odds-on favorites” to be the last without a visor.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Stephen Whyno, The Associated Press