Amazing: The Detroit Red Wings recently completed an essential new signing.

Amazing: The Detroit Red Wings recently completed an essential new signing.

Before Anthony Mantha was signed on Tuesday, the general manager of the Detroit Red Wings, Steve Yzerman, had already shown excellence in this offseason.

Still, it was all about hitting a lot of singles and not striking out, much like his mentor in Edmonton. Yzerman and the Red Wings hit the jackpot by signing Anthony Mantha for four years at a reported $22.8 million ($5.7 million cap hit).

The Red Wings have locked down Mantha, 26, for his prime years with this four-year contract. That also includes a minimum of two seasons as an unrestricted fee agent. Once more, excellent work from Detroit.

The Red Wings don’t have to spend the rest of the offseason resting on their laurels. They can pull off another Marc Staal-style deal to take on someone else’s cap issues for picks and futures with roughly $9.54 million in cap space left.

Perhaps Yzerman ought to get in touch with his friends in Tampa and work out a solution that works for everyone.

 

With the signing of Anthony Mantha, the Red Wings score big.
Regardless of your ranking of Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha as one of the best tandems in the NHL, they provide the Red Wings with excellent value.

Through 2022–2023, Larkin, 24, only has a $6.1 million cap hit. A little under $12 million for the next three seasons (plus an additional year’s worth of coverage for Mantha at that $5.7 million clip) for those two? That is excellent content.

For Red Wings teams that occasionally had little to look forward to beyond Mantha-Larkin (and now Tyler Bertuzzi), Mantha has been productive by almost any measure. In just 43 games in 2019–20, he scored 16 goals and 38 points. Prior to that, he had two seasons in a row with 24+ goals and 48 points.

This will be an even greater bargain if Mantha can maintain his health. Mantha was only allowed to play in 48 games the previous season and 67 of 82 games in the 2018–19 campaign. With 80 games played, the 2017–18 season was the closest to being fully healthy for him to date.

However, it is possible that some of those bumps and bruises are normal for a winger with a larger build, like Mantha.

The Red Wings can live with him missing a few stretches at that $5.7 million clip. (Especially since they’re still a long way from being genuinely competitive, to be honest.).

Mantha shines beyond strong counting numbers, delightfully. His excellent underlying numbers show that he isn’t just better than the average player on a terrible team.

The Red Wings have an intriguing rebuilding window compared to competitors thanks to the Mantha deal.
The important thing moving forward is to seize the chance in front of the Red Wings.

Once more, they are currently enjoying some excellent, low-cost prime years from the Larkin and Mantha teams. However, there are also chances to get significant value out of prospects who will graduate during Mantha’s contract.

If the Red Wings combine Larkin and Mantha with players like Filip Hronek and entry-level players like Lucas Raymond, Filip Zadina, and Moritz Seider, could they make significant strides?