Updated at 7:33 PM: The Red Wings re-signed Anthony Mantha to a 4-year contract at an average of $5.7 million per season today, and, around 5 PM EST, Mantha spoke with the media for approximately 20 minutes, discussing his contract and the expectations for both himself as a player and his team going forward:
The Red Wings’ beat writers have also weighed in regarding Mantha’s contract, and his comments regarding his deal and the team, starting with The Athletic’s Max Bultman…
If Mantha can stay healthy for the bulk of this deal, he should deliver top-line-caliber play (or close to it) for its duration, and could very well be Detroit’s top scorer. He has thrived playing alongside Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi, and even as recent top-10 picks Filip Zadina and Lucas Raymond continue to develop, Mantha’s diverse skill set as a scorer and playmaker should keep him as a go-to piece as the Red Wings try to turn the corner in their rebuild.
“We’re going to be contenders at some point,” Mantha said. “The rebuild needs a couple years to get there, and then the team’s going to be good. And that’s when the opportunity’s going to come: if it’s Year 2, 3 or 4, I’ll be around, and hopefully I can help this team.”
Mantha said one of his focuses right now is adding rebound goals around the net and boosting the team’s power play, which has struggled in recent years. He came back to Detroit in early September after spending the summer at his home near Montreal, where he worked out with goaltender Jonathan Bernier. Since returning to Detroit, he’s been training at Barwis Methods with Larkin, Luke Glendening and Darren Helm.
From Mantha’s side of things, he now has certainty and security for the next four seasons. He was able to structure the deal in an advantageous way, backloading the final two years, which will shield him a bit from increased escrow in the short term. He will also get the opportunity to sign another potentially significant contract just before his 30th birthday, when he should still have good years ahead of him.
And continuing with MLive’s Ansar Khan…
Mantha was a restricted free agent coming off a two-year contract with a cap hit of $3.3 million. The new deal has a cap hit of $5.7 million. There was little doubt he would re-sign since RFAs rarely receive offer sheets and teams almost always match on those few occasions they do.
Mantha said it came down to either a four- or five-year deal.
“It was a long process, but my agent was telling me things are going the right way and I need to trust him,” Mantha said. “Even us not filing for (arbitration), it was my agent’s call, he told me things are going in the right direction, (saying), ‘Trust Stevie. He’s a man of his word, so we’ll get things done. I think four years brings me to a good age where I can sign a better four-year or five-year (deal) if everything goes well.”
Mantha has yet to appear in a playoff game but has good reason to believe the team is headed in the right direction.
“We’re going to be contenders at some point,” he said. “A rebuild needs a couple years to get there and then the team’s going to be good and that’s when the opportunity is going to come. I’ll be around and hopefully I can help this team.”
The Free Press’s Helene St. James weighed in as well:
“Everyone knows we’re in a rebuild phase,” Mantha said. “[Yzerman] signing me to a four-year deal also tells me he sees me as part of the future of the team, part of the guys that are going to help the team win, and that is the pressure that comes with it. I’ll have to bring my game to another level and try to help this team win.”
The Wings invested in Mantha (6-foot-5, 234-pound) because, at his best, he is a force; a goal scorer with just as good a knack for making passes. Injuries have derailed his attempts at hitting the 30-goal mark — the closest he’s come is 25, in 2018-19— but Mantha believes 30 “is something that’s reachable for me in the near future.” To that end, he’s been practicing rebound goals during scrimmages with fellow professionals who are in metro Detroit killing time while waiting NHL training camps can begin.
COVID-19 has disrupted the league schedule and is also why Mantha didn’t sign until November. He said the sides have been talking for three-to-four months. Yzerman was busy in October with the draft and free agency, and then the arbitration case for Tyler Bertuzzi. Mantha said he was advised by his agent not to file for arbitration because negotiations were going smoothly. There was no threat a contract would not materialize, it was just a matter of when.
Mantha, 26, said talks centered a contract of four or five years. It was never going to be fewer than four because a two-year deal would have taken him to unrestricted free agency. Now Mantha will have four seasons to prove his worth and sign an even bigger contract at age 30.
Mantha also spoke with the French-speaking media during part of his conference call, and Le Journal de Montreal’s Jean-Francois Chaumont posted an article about Mantha’s re-signing (what follows is roughly translated)…
“We know we are in a rebuilding mode,” Mantha said during the video conference. “By offering me a four-year contract, Steve sees me as part of the team’s future as well. I know they want to build with Dylan Larkin and me in particular. It will come with pressure, but this role suits me. “
Mantha explained that his agent (Pat Brisson) had been negotiating with Yzerman for several months. The two sides finally found a solution with a four-season pact.
For the 26-year-old Quebec native, this is an ideal period of time.
“Reconstruction began two or three years ago in Detroit. We should become a good team within two or three years. Why four years? With the uncertainty of COVID-19 this year, I didn’t want a one-season deal. We don’t really know if we will play this year. And if we play, will we play five games a week? I have injured myself in the past and I am not immune to another injury. ”
“A two-year contract, the Red Wings didn’t want because I could become a free agent without compensation after the two years,” he continued. “For three years we’ve been asking questions, but Dylan Larkin’s contract will end in three years. Stevie [Yzerman] didn’t want to renegotiate the deals of two big players at the same time. So we had options for a four or five-year contract. I also wanted security. I think there are a lot of good things about this agreement. I will be 30 at the end of this contract, I will still have good seasons.”
RDS.ca posted a 5:35 video clip of PJ Stock joining their panel to talk about Mantha, too, so you can say for certain that he’s “Big in Quebec.”
Update: 97.1 the Ticket’s Will Burchfield also weighs in:
“Obviously (the status of) this season is up in the air, but usually everyone talks about that magic 30, and I think it’s something that’s reachable for me in the real near future. That’s the goal I’m set on right now,” he said.
The NHL is a young man’s game. This is Mantha’s prime. Of the league’s top 10 goal scorers last season, only one — Alex Ovechkin — was above the age of 30. Eight of the other nine were under the age of 25.
It’s also a two-man game, and a three-man game. All but one of those 10 scorers played on a winning team. It’s easier to score goals when you’re surrounded by good players. So that’s the next piece of the puzzle for Yzerman.
Mantha said the two sides starting talking a few months ago. “Slow talk at first,” per usual. Things heated up last month as Mantha’s arbitration deadline drew near, and then it all came together, he said, “over the last 24 hours.”
Here’s more from NHL.com’s Tracey Myers:
“Everyone knows we’re in a rebuild phase,” Mantha said. “[Yzerman] signing me to a four-year deal also tells me he sees me as part of the future of the team, part of the guys who’s going to help the team win, and that’s the pressure that comes with it.”
Mantha scored an NHL career-high four goals in Detroit’s home opener against the Dallas Stars on Oct. 6, 2019, becoming the first Red Wings player since John Sorrell in 1933-34 to have a four-goal game in the Red Wings’ first home game.
He scored an NHL career-high 48 points (24 goals, 24 assists) for Detroit in 80 games in 2017-18 and matched that with 48 (25 goals, 23 assists) in 67 games in 2018-19.
“The process was a long process, but my agent (Pat Brisson) was telling me that things were going the right way,” Mantha said. “So, I kind of needed to trust him at that time. Even us not filing for arbitration, again, it was my agent’s call. He said things were going in the right direction. [My agent said,] ‘I need you to trust me, trust Stevie. He’s a man of his word so we’ll get it done.'”
Didn’t strike me as over paid and if he is on the top line and PP, 30 goals is a fair goal. He is big, seems like a good guy in the room, just keep the gloves on. 4 yrs should have some other prospects moving up. StevieY is not going to make many mistakes. The rebuild might be over a bit earlier and a constant movement of a few older players being replaced by young guns. Hopefully this will be the Last BIG rebuild.