Detroit Red Wings: Locking up Anthony Mantha is a win-win

Anthony Mantha’s extension with the Detroit Red Wings is a win-win.

Going into the 2020 NHL offseason, the Detroit Red Wings found themselves in a bit of a pickle.

Fresh off of a 17-49-5 (39 points) record, the worst mark of any team in the Atlantic Division – and the fewest wins of any team in general – the Red Wings had the most available salary cap space of any team in NHL but very few marquee-level free agents wanting anything to do with them.

Sure, the team landed Bobby Ryan, the 33-year-old Cherry Hill, New Jersey native who won the 2019-20 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, but he only inked a one-year, $1 million deal and could very likely be shipped out at the trade deadline for future assets a bit further down the line. The same goes for Jonathon Merrill, Troy Stecher, and Vladislav Namestnikov, all of whom signed short-term deals that become viable assets if the 2020-21 season shakes out with an eerily similar vibe to 2019-20.

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*sigh* outside of Lucas Raymond, the 18-year-old Sweedish right wing who fell to Detroit at four overall in the 2020 NHL Draft, it’s entirely possible this season’s squad – with only eight players under contract for the 2021-22 season – would play like the NHL’s equivalent of ‘The Expendables’; a collection of players on short-term deals biding their time for a better opportunity elsewhere.

But little did we know that the Red Wings had a few tricks up their sleeves to bring a little fire back to a lukewarm fanbase desperate for a return to their winning ways.

On Tuesday, November 3rd, the Red Wings officially announced that they’d extended right wing Anthony Mantha, their goals-per-game leader since 2016-17, to a four-year deal worth $22.8 million. With an average annual value of $5.7 million, the 26-year-old Longueuil, Quebec native is now tied with offseason trade acquisition Marc Staal as the second-highest-paid player on the Red Wings’ books moving forward, with his services locked up through the 2023-24 season.

As things presently stand, Mantha is the 23rd highest-paid right wing in the league in average annual value, sandwiched in between T.J. Oshie of the Capitals and Josh Anderson of the Canadiens. Is that a tad under-value for a wing who has averaged 42.5 points over the last four seasons? Maybe so, but when you consider Mantha’s unique situation, that may not be the case.

You see, over his tenure with the Red Wings, Mantha has never played in all 82 games. He missed the majority of the 2014-15 season with a fractured tibia, broke his finger in a fight with once and future Lightning defenseman Luke Witkowski, and missed time with a lower-body injury in the fall of 2019. While none of these injuries are necessarily connected or have the potential to become reoccurring with further wear and tear, it’s hard to commit big money to a player who can’t be reliably counted on to be available.

By accepting this deal, Mantha has the long-term financial stability he most-certainly craves and gets to remain with a team he clearly thrives on without having to go through the effort of an ugly restricted free agency process.

At $22.8 million over four years, Anthony Mantha got a big payday worthy of a team’s top scorer, and the Detroit Red Wings were able to lock up a homegrown prospect to build around moving forward, at a price that isn’t catastrophic if things go south. Don’t you just love it when things work out?