Mark Hunter continues to round out the Maple Leafs’ amateur scouting staff, hiring London Knights scout Tony Martino.

Martino has worked as the US-area scout under the Hunters for the Knights since 2010, and serves as the Hockey Director at Lake Forest college in Illinois, where he was also the assistant coach/goalie coach last season (Martino was a goalie in his playing days). In his first year behind the bench as the goalie coach, Lake Forest goalie Leo Podlosk won Player of the Year in the NCHA after posting a 1.99 GAA and a .940 save percentage.

He was an assistant coach with the Moncton Wildcats of the QMJHL in 2006-07 and prior to served as the head coach of two different teams in the Italy-A league. He’s coached in a wide variety of Leagues including the CHL, WPHL, ACHL, ECHL, QMJHL, NCHA and Italy-A.

He has some NHL experience as well with the Blackhawks and the Blue Jackets; he was the video coach for the Blackhawks for a stint in 2008 and a Quebec/Eastern Canada scout for the Blue Jackets during the 2007-08 season.

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Martino’s area focus will be the United States junior/college ranks, and he’s currently based in the Greater Chicago Area. Illinois native Christian Dvorak was an eighth round pick of the London Knights in the 2012 Priority Draft after going sixth overall in the USHL draft to the Chicago Steel, and he wound up committing to the Knights a season later in 2013-14, getting drafted in the second round by the Arizona Coyotes in 2014 despite playing only 33 games due to a knee injury. He crushed it with an 109 point-year last season, playing primarily alongside Mitch Marner and Max Domi.

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Chandler Yakimowicz was another commit from the USHL/Metropolitan league ranks; he was drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the sixth round in 2014. Chris Martenet, a fourth round pick of the Stars in 2015, followed a similar route to the Knights.



Scouting Staff Mark Hunter Director of Player Personnel Dave Morrison Director, Pro Scouting Ari Vuori Director, European Scouting Jim Paliafito Director of Player Evaluation Mike Penny Pro Scout Tom Watt Pro Scout Bryan Stewart Pro Scout Troy Bodie Pro Scout John Lilley Amateur Scout Lindsay Hofford Amateur Scout Real Paiement Amateur Scout Garth Malarchuk Amateur Scout Dale Derkatch Amateur Scout Tony Martino Amateur Scout Jim Vesey Amateur Scout Patrick Charbonneau Amateur Scout Thommie Bergman European Scout Nikolai Ladygin European Scout Radim Jelinek European Scout Robert Nordmark European Scout Mike Gerritis Player Evaluation Consultant Brian Daccord Goaltending Consultant

Toronto Maple Leafs Scouting Staff





Martino joins Dale Derkatch (Western Canada) and Robert Nordmark (Europe) among Hunter’s most recent scouting hires in time for the new hockey season.

Like with the Derkatch hire, the nice thing about hiring scouts out of the CHL ranks is that they will have a deep knowledge of the next couple of draft classes having watched the kids in their area dating back to bantam and midget.