The Washington Capitals played their final game of the preseason on Saturday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The lineup that head coach Spencer Carbery sent out onto the ice at Capital One Arena was one that he said was “very close to an NHL regular season opening night lineup”.
It did not include veteran forward Anthony Mantha. Instead, Carbery opted for younger players like Connor McMichael and Matthew Phillips, who appear to have edged Mantha in battles for roles within the team’s top-nine forward group.
Naturally, that leads to questions regarding Mantha’s status with the team. Sunday was the last day for NHL teams to waive players in order to set their Opening Day rosters by 5 pm ET on Monday and Mantha was not waived.
So, what exactly are the options the Caps have with Mantha and his $5.7 million cap hit moving forward if he’s on the outs of the team for a second-straight season?
Keep him and play him regularly
The first option is perhaps the most simple. The Caps bet on Mantha’s optimism about his offseason and give him another run within the lineup to try and either increase his trade value or make the most of the final year on his contract.
Mantha’s availability via trade this past offseason was common knowledge around the league but it doesn’t seem like the Caps had any takers.
“[The Capitals] came to get me two and a half years ago already and I feel like I haven’t been the player they wanted so far,” Mantha said earlier this preseason. “So that’s my goal this year, to prove to them that that player’s here (now) and he’s ready to play.”
Mantha’s continued to talk to a mental coach, who he hired last season, and lost nearly 10 pounds trying to regain past speed.
The big winger has produced in the league in the past. He isn’t too far removed from the 2018-19 campaign that he had with the Detroit Red Wings where he tallied 48 points (25g, 23a) in 67 games. Even his first 51 games with the Caps before last year were played at a scoring pace (0.61 points per game) that would see him reach 50 points over a full, 82-game slate.
Carbery also hasn’t exactly committed to not playing Mantha, remarking that Mantha’s last performance of the preseason on the road in Columbus was his best yet.
“That process for him last game is exactly what we need from him,” Carbery said. “And so if he continues to play that way, those pucks will go in for him. And he’s a skilled player and he needs those to go in for him. But if he continues with that same process, good things will happen for him.”
While Mantha definitely did not put up the points to match his salary last season and was frustratingly ineffective for long stretches of play, his process stats were good. In over 854 minutes with him on the ice at five-on-five, the Caps saw 51.9 percent of the shot attempts, 52.6 percent of the expected goals, 52 percent of the scoring chances, and 54.4 percent of the high-danger chances.
So, the Caps could get away with trying to get his confidence back up and giving him a run of games to find his scoring touch again if he keeps those sort of numbers up. It would not be a net negative for the club. But, if he does not produce points in those minutes, questions will be asked if another player, like Phillips, would have.
Keep him, but keep him out of the lineup
The other option where Mantha remains on the NHL roster is the more complicated one. The Caps would keep the expensive forward during the season but sit him out as a healthy scratch until either injury necessitates a comeback into the lineup or the team determines he’s had a strong enough run of practices to earn playing time again.
The Caps hired assistant coach Kenny McCudden this past summer and he is expected to work exclusively with players on a more, one-on-one skills basis. Could McCudden’s arrival be beneficial for players like Mantha that have stated in the past that they’ve struggled with time out of the lineup?
Carbery raved about McCudden last week, saying his hiring was one of the first things on his agenda after he got the Caps job. Having an individual skills coach on staff was something Carbery did in Hershey and he says it was also a huge focus with the Toronto Maple Leafs during his tenure there.
“I’ve seen the benefit of it and I’ve seen what it does for the players,” Carbery said. “The individual work that they get and the touches they get and the problem solving. So, I have a huge appreciation for Kenny McCudden’s role and knowing the benefits of it.
“It’s really difficult for assistants to also have a skillset of being able to [determine] how does a player take a puck on his backhand and move it to his forehand in a quick way and come up with a drill in two minutes like that. Kenny McCudden can [do that] and so he’s getting all these situations where they’re creating good habits and creating confidence. There’s so much value in it even in the grind of an 82-game schedule. We’ll have skill sessions every day before practice. It’ll be geared toward different things whether it’s player specific or whether it’s a certain skill specific.”
Building up a player’s confidence while sitting them out of the everyday lineup is no easy task. Especially, with a player like Mantha that is coming into this season at his lowest since he entered the league full-time in 2016.
But, McCudden is “generally regarded as the best in the business” according to Carbery and could be able to work his magic with Mantha.
Cut him and send him to Hershey
Mantha does not have a no-movement clause in his contract so he could be waived for the purpose of sending him to the AHL’s Hershey Bears. The 29-year-old has not played in the AHL since the 2016-17 campaign but his head coach with the Grand Rapids Griffins during that season and the year before was current Hershey head coach Todd Nelson.
The Caps would benefit from a maximum of $1.15 million in cap savings if that move were to go through. Mantha would benefit from playing under a coach that he trusts and in a league that he’d likely dominate, which should both in theory raise his confidence and make him a viable NHL option again.
Sometimes though, veteran NHL players do not take kindly to being sent down to the minors as far along in their careers as they are. They may refuse to report to their new destination which opens a whole new can of worms outlined in the next possible scenario.
Cut him and waive him with the purpose of mutual contract termination
One of the options that would need cooperation from both sides is Mantha being placed on waivers for purpose of mutual contract termination. Acknowledgement from both parties would need to take place, officially declaring that there is no future success with the two sides connected.
If keeping Mantha around is determined to not be working out, the two sides could explore this possibility although it is highly unlikely. The process would require Mantha to purposefully forego the remaining salary on his deal in favor of seeking a fresh start in free agency elsewhere in the middle of the season. A rather rare and unlikely scenario that takes place more often in the offseason with players that are being paid lesser salaries.
The process overall is more common with younger players that may be seeking professional opportunity overseas or in another NHL organization to reset their careers. More veteran players may do it at the tail end of their careers, like Michal Kempny did with the Seattle Kraken last year so that he could return to his native Czechia.
However, in the scenario that Mantha potentially refuses to report to Hershey, the Caps could suspend him without pay which would take him off the books in regards to the team’s cap. That would then force Mantha to likely agree to the “mutual” contract termination. For example, this exact thing happened with the Buffalo Sabres and defenseman Zach Bogosian in 2020.
As a reminder, the Caps cannot just buyout the remainder of Mantha’s deal. The window for that option came and went during the summer.
So, they are left only with really the above four options. What do you think they should do?
Headline photo: Katie Adler/RMNB
