The Washington Capitals’ desire to offload forward Anthony Mantha and his $5.7 million cap hit has been well known around the league for quite some time. While the big winger moving on from DC was one of the central focuses of the team’s offseason, the noise around him has quieted down with the daily, regular-season grind kicking in.
That changed recently as the rumor mill heated back up and Mantha’s name started popping up in reports from sources around the league again.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman specifically brought up Mantha in his 32 Thoughts column when listing potential, early-season trade targets.
Friedman wrote back on October 25:
Cap is tight, rosters are short and organizations like to see what they have. That said, players who teams would like to move (or the players would like it): Joel Armia (Montreal), Conor Garland (Vancouver), Kevin Labanc (San Jose), Anthony Mantha (Washington), Andrew Peeke (Columbus).
Mantha, who was a healthy scratch earlier in the season, has seen his role on the Capitals grow since that report dropped as the team has dealt with injuries to players like Nic Dowd and Nicklas Backstrom. The 29-year-old is fifth on the team among forwards in five-on-five ice time (67:01) in the Capitals’ last five games.
In those five appearances, Mantha has rewarded head coach Spencer Carbery for the uptick in minutes. With Mantha on the ice at five-on-five, the Capitals have seen 54.7 percent of the shot attempts, 59.2 percent of the expected goals, 50.5 percent of the scoring chances, and 62.4 percent of the high-danger chances. Mantha has particularly combined well with Connor McMichael after the latter slotted into the third-line center position.
While his recent play has been good, it still may not be enough to stave off a trade. The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta has also gone on record saying the Capitals were involved in discussions with the Montreal Canadiens about a deal that would see Mantha shipped to his home province in return for winger Joel Armia. In this rumored trade, Armia would then be moved on to a third, unnamed team.
The Fourth Period added on Sunday that the Philadelphia Flyers and San Jose Sharks have also been spoken to about Mantha, but the Capitals have been unwilling to add a deal sweetener good enough for the teams to take on Mantha’s salary. They end their report stating, “a trade involving Mantha is not believed to be imminent.”
While Mantha’s underlying numbers have been good, he has just one goal through the Capitals’ first 10 games. That’s an eight-goal pace over a full 82-game season for a player making close to $6 million.
“[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 during the preseason. “So that’s my goal this year, to prove to them that that player’s here (now) and he’s ready to play.”
So far this season, Mantha has more games (5) with zero shots on goal recorded than he does games (4) with at least one shot on goal. He also tallied both of his points this season in the same game and has been held pointless in his eight other outings.
Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan restated his desire to acquire a young, top-six forward on Monday. Moving Mantha out may be a prerequisite for that type of move.
“Our goal is to have a top-six guy in the right age group, from the offseason, and our goal is still to do that,” MacLellan said. “We’re still pursuing opportunities that might present that.”
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB
