NHL Free Agency
Penguins Give Bonus Heavy Deal to Anthony Mantha, Report
A day after the rumors without news confirmation, Renaud Lavioe of the French-speaking outlet TVA Sports reports that the Pittsburgh Penguins’ signing of Anthony Mantha is a done deal.
The team has not yet announced it, but Lavioe reports the deal is one-year for $2.5 million, but the Penguins are also offering another $2 million in bonuses.
Mantha, 30, missed most of last season with the Calgary Flames due to a torn ACL, suffered on Nov. 5. It was a short campaign for the right wing who was hoping to build on a 23-goal season in 2023-24 that was split between the Washington Capitals and Vegas Golden Knights.
Mantha has long tantalized GMs with his talent but also frustrated teams with his lack of production. The 2013 first-round pick by the Detroit Red Wings (20th overall) has played with four teams, including three over the last two seasons.
In total, Mantha played only 13 games last season, scoring four goals with three assists in just under 14 minutes of ice time for Calgary.
Mantha is a veteran of 507 NHL games over 10 NHL seasons and has scored 146 goals with 303 points.
The move would seem to be a precursor to more potential Penguins trades as Mantha is capable of top-six duties, if healthy. Penguins wingers Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust have been rumored trade targets, and general manager Kyle Dubas has admitted to fielding calls for his veteran players. However, regarding Rust specifically, Dubas said the Penguins were “open for business, but the price is high.”
Read More: More Dubas: ‘Market is Nuts,’ When to Expect Trades; Malkin Timeline
The Penguins signed a handful of players on Day 1 of NHL free agency, including re-signing forwards Philip Tomasino and Connor Dewar. Mantha would appear to crowd the forwards group unless one or two are traded away. According to PuckPedia.com, the Penguins now have 15 forwards on the roster and $15.7 million in salary cap space remaining.
This is unnecessary. Danton Heinen fills the role of occasional scorer on the team. There can be only one. Maybe Dubas received a blockbuster trade offer for Heinen! 😱
If my sarcasm offends anyone, apologies.
If what u think is Heinen or Mantha…I’ll take mantha anytime before heinen. I like Dubas decisions, he has a plan in mind and is moving on it…fans do not need to know the details only the end result as fans are not in the management circle/discussion/decisions. GO PENS
I forget that some people do not understand sarcasm. It is a joke.
I am also enjoying Dubas’ moves. I was hoping for some younger players added to the roster, but it is not like Kyle has the power of manifesting such trades, right? Lol
This is a sign and trade at the deadline if he has a good year. You may get a 1st for him!
He was able to get a 2nd rounder for Beauvillier, so anything is possible.
Tough crowd. I see all your rotten tomatoes. Thank you
The wife’s birthday celebration had me taking yesterday off from reading Pens’ news and in that time Dan publishes 17 articles. 17. No exaggeration. You can count ’em. Yesterday and today. Amazing, young man. Dubas has made his method clear and, for everybody wringing their hands over this rebuild, he’s doing what the franchise needs. Trust the process. Besides, unless you were around to suffer through this club in the early 70s and the early 80s, just keep your powder dry. Those were some miserable teams. This 25-26 squad, whatever their final regular season record, has a pretty low probability… Read more »
This certainly dims the light a little on RFA signings
Not at all. Dubas has his plan and is looking at what players he wants
There were some rfa’s that could have possibly been available, but most of them were qualified by their current team or re-signed. Which rfa’s specifically are you thinking about?
Another reclamation project to hopefully net some picks at the tdl.
Journalism question – how does one choose who to attribute credit to for reports such as Mantha yesterday? I know you’ve said, both verbally and in writing, that it wasn’t reliable due to the original rumor-mill source. But, it did turn out to be accurate. With that being the case, what does the situation demand in terms of credit?
Seems like he could be the Power Play net front presence we haven’t seen since Patrick Hornqvist. Pump up his numbers and increase his value for the trade deadline.
The comments relative to the Anthony Mantha signing are far more optimistic than my opinion. I’ve watched him over his career, wondering why a 6’5″ man plays so soft. When he isn’t hurt, he is usually invisible. He has157 career hits; Phil Kessell had 202! I’m becoming slightly impatient with what I’ve seen so far. Yesterday was three guys, each signed to 2 year contracts, none of whom I have ever heard of. Today, more of the same. Two more “no names”, plus Mantha. It just appears that the plan is to finish last this year and hope for a… Read more »
“It just appears that the plan is to finish last this year and hope for a high lottery pick.”
You can’t possibly expect Dubas to come out and say that this is what he is going to do, but it has been clear that this is the plan since last offseason.
Robert,
What is it that has been clear since last offseason?
To finish last in 2026?
Clear to whom?
It hasn’t been clear to me that has been and continues to be GMKD’s plan but my ignorance in this regard merely reinforces my status as the undisputed least knowledgeable commenter.
The direction is a full rebuild, and yes that does mean a lot of losing. It is clear to anyone who has paid attention to the moves that the team has made and listened to Dubas when he has spoken. The goal isn’t to win now, it is build a system that can win consistently in the future. Dubas has to say the goal is to win for Sid before he retires, but that is just impossible for a team to go in 2 different directions at the same time.
Gotcha!
The fault here is mine in that I took you literally as in the actual “plan” is to finish the 2026 season last or as close as possible thereto.
I continue to very seriously doubt that GMKD is making his current decisions with the specific intent of losing as many games as possible next season. There’s a lot of problems inherent in that “plan”.
However, I now understand that’s not what you meant when talking about the “plan”.
Thanks
The difficult thing is that having Crosby on your team is going against your “plan” if the plan is to lose. Cuz you know that he is still trying to win as much as possible!
Based on the finishes to the last three *seasons*, I thought it was pretty clear. shrug.
Jeff,
the origin of my comment about the “plan” was Bob H.’s comment about signing Mantha and whether that was part of a “plan” to finish last.
Thus, I don’t follow/understand your reference to the last three seasons?
Was trading for Erik Karlsson part of the plan?
Was signing Jarry and Graves part of the “plan”?
Seems very unlikely to me. What am I misunderstanding?
Scott
I think Jeff’s comment is saying that the team has been on the downward trajectory starting 3 seasons ago when they missed the playoffs for the first time.
Many would argue that rebuilding should have started sooner, perhaps after losing to the Crapitals in 2018. They showed spurts of potential and winning in that span, but the team was never really the same after that loss in the playoffs. The last 3 seasons, the team has been frustrating and unbearable to watch at times.
Yep, right on. The first two of the last three.. end of season, playoffs on the line and up against the dregs of the league. Playoffs are right there for the taking. Soiled the bed.
IMO, EK65 was about a) getting a big name signing, b) showing the team GMKD was going for it, and c) allowed us to shed some bad contracts. But everyone should know you can’t go for it and rebuild at the same time. At most, you can keep the wheelie going ala VGK and FLA. Sooner or later, the ride ends. I think Jarry and Graves were players that GMKD genuinely thought were going to be foundational. Shrug. He’s the GM and took a shot. With 35, he had more Penguins history to reference, in my view, to make his… Read more »
Bob H, You definitely know your hockey. These pickups are far from physical. Clifton is a punching bag. The softest team in league since Sullivan was Coach. Defensive Unit was really soft. Not addressed in any way. Toronto is ecstatic they got rid of Dubas. These garbage Dman are worse than last year. Clifton aquired for a younger, bigger, better Dman who would dust Clifton in a fight. Going to be a tough team to watch.
Saying you haven’t heard of Caleb Jones, Justin Brazeau, and Parker Wotherspoon shows more about your lack of puck knowledge and less about who the Pens are signing
Or in this instance further validation that ignorance is bliss. 😂😂
Hopefully clear but if not my thought is that knowing who those 3 players are is no salve to those of us who may have been hoping for something a bit better.
Never been a fan of his, but I love what KD did hear. Low risk, medium to high reward. If he clicks with Geno or maybe Sid, that should up his production. If that happens, he can be flipped at the TDL. He can play a heavy game, and he drops the gloves from time to time but a broken finger limits his effectiveness. Frankly, I hope the plan is to use him as a net-front presence. That would be intriguing.
I expect Racks or Rusty to be packing their bags by the weekend.
Only makes sense if they trade Rakell. Hopefully they do so while his value is high.
Why trade the younger RW who is always healthy. Rust would be a better trade for us. Notice Eric still on team too?
Maybe the collection of wingers being signed is a pre-curser to dealing Raks and Rust?
Vets are placeholders now. We have $50 mm in cap space next year and none of these deals tie it up. Best case, we start trying to win in ‘26. We should have a ton of prospects and a bunch of picks left in 27/28. I’m glad we’re not bidding on high end free agents yet. Especially with the first cap hike in 5 years. The timing of the Pens rebuild is pretty good. We’re getting paid so much draft compensation for players because so many teams think they can win and they can fit some salary under the cap.… Read more »
With 5 open roster spots, it feels like KD is only halfway through his desired moves. I’ll wager there are bigger moves to come that shake up the roster.
I agree
Well if anything Dubas got the Pens a heck of a lot bigger that’s for sure