After a mostly disappointing tenure in Washington, Anthony Mantha has played his way into an outstanding opportunity with the Golden Knights
After a mostly disappointing tenure in Washington, Anthony Mantha has played his way into an outstanding opportunity with the Golden Knights
Yesterday, former Detroit Red Wings Anthony Mantha was traded from the Washington Capitals to the Vegas Golden Knights for a 2024 second round pick and a 2026 fourth, with 50% of his salary retained by the Capitals. For Mantha, the deal represents a shimmering opportunity; he is playing his best hockey since leaving Detroit, and now he joins a team with as good a track record as any at bringing the best out of big, skilled wingers for a long playoff run.
In the immediate aftermath of the deal that sent him to Washington, you could be forgiven for giving up on the idea that Mantha would wind up here in the final year of the four-year, $22.8 million deal he signed with the Red Wings in November 2020—a player worthy of the attention of a team like Vegas as it ramps up for another run at the Stanley Cup.
At the 2021 deadline, Steve Yzerman dealt Mantha to Washington in exchange for Jakub Vrana, Richard Panik, a first round pick that would become Sebastian Cossa (by way of a subsequent deal with Dallas), and a second round pick that would become Dmitri Buchelnikov.
At the time, the deal felt like a blockbuster, finalized just before the deadline arrived. Vrana's early success in Detroit (and Mantha's relative struggles) made it feel like a fleecing in the months following the trade. Now, the two centerpieces of the deal (Mantha and Vrana) have both moved on from the team's that acquired them in that trade. Vrana was sent unceremoniously to St. Louis last season for Dylan McLaughlin and a 2025 seventh, where he followed a similar pattern of immediate spark followed by slow-building fizzle, which has left him playing with AHL Springfield. Within two years, the deal's two focal points feel more like after thoughts.
Mantha seemed to bring the worst of his reputation amongst Red Wing fans with him to Washington, which was made all the more acute by Vrana's early scoring touch in Detroit. Capitals fans perceived him as soft relative to his six-foot-five frame, unreliable, and more talented than he was effective.
However, this year, Mantha set the stage for his move to Vegas with 20 goals and 14 assists for 34 points in 56 games with the Caps. That's equal to the 20 goals he scored in the previous two seasons combined over 104 games, and it's the biggest reason Washington wound up with more in parting with him than Yzerman did in dumping Vrana to the Blues.
So now, with his next contract hanging in the balance, Mantha has the chance to find his place amongst the rugged, physical Golden Knights and dispel with finality the negative associations that have dogged him throughout his career by delivering the sort of postseason his physical gifts and tools suggest has always been within reach.
Mantha's role in Vegas is not yet clear. He hasn't yet played a game, and in all likelihood, the Knights are done wheeling and dealing before Friday's trade deadline. However, Vegas has an obvious need for scorers along the wing, and regardless of where Mantha begins his tenure there, he should have the chance to play his way up the lineup.
Mantha's career has often been a frustrating one because of the divide between his tools and his production, but at last he's producing the way Washington hoped he might when they brought him aboard three years ago. That production has come to late to impact a Capitals' postseason run, but, if he can keep it up in what promises to be an ideal environment with the Knights, there will be a robust contract waiting for him on the other side.
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