Washington Capitals Grades: Anthony Mantha 2021 Report Card

What a start Anthony Mantha had to his Washington Capitals career. Mantha was traded to the Capitals from the Detroit Red Wings on April 12th for Jakub Vrana, Richard Panik, a 2021 first round pick and a 2022 second rounder. With that kind of return I think it’s fair to say the expectations were and are big for this guy in D.C.

The expectations and high hopes were satisfied, at least early on. Mantha scored a goal in each of his first four games for the Capitals. He was the first person in term history to achieve that feat.

Vrana also found success in Detroit. In his 11 games with the winged wheel he registered 11 points and potted 8 goals. While Mantha was scoring in four straight games for the Caps, Vrana scored 4 goals in one game vs the Dallas Stars on April 22nd. It looked like this was one of those rare win win trades.

Mantha cooled off however. After scoring in four straight games he failed to score in the final ten games of the regular season. On top of that he did not score a goal in five playoff games. Allow me to do that simple math for you, that’s a 15 game scoreless streak that he is taking into next season.

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Even with that extended goalless streak being a fact, I still think Mantha deserves some slack. It’s hard enough to get traded mid season, let alone during a pandemic. You have to get acquainted to your new team, you’re switching cities, which is hard in itself and some cities having or had harder restrictions, some having fewer. All of this during a very important time for this franchise.

All of that being considered, I thought Mantha looked pretty good for this team. You could see why the Capitals wanted him over Vrana. He’s a big body that can skate well and get goals and chances. Even through this goalless streak he had plenty of chances. When you’re not scoring, that’s all you can ask for.

On top of the four goals he scored with the Capitals he also added 4 assists for a total of 8 points in 14 games in Washington.

He also had some very good advanced stats with the Caps. All of his analytics are in the “very good” if not “great” category. Here are his numbers from the 14 games with Washington.

Corsi % – 57.83%

Scoring Chance For % – 61.74%

High Danger Attempts % – 66.07%

Expected Goals For % – 60.46%

Mantha played most of his time with Nicklas Backstrom and the first or second line, whatever you want to consider Backstrom, either the top line center or second line center.

Mantha was one of the few guys I thought had an at least decent playoffs. Even though he didn’t tickle the twine he had chances, something a lot of other guys can’t say. He had 7 chances while 5v5 which is more than Backstrom, Oshie, Kuznetsov, Carlson and Eller. He also had 4 high danger attempts which was tied for second on the team with Conor Sheary. The 4 attempts were second to only Nic Dowd who had 5.

Here are the rest of his playoff stats.

Corsi % – 52.24%

Scoring Chance For % – 57.38%

High Danger Attempts % – 52.38%

Expected Goals For % – 48.34%

He had no goals and two assists during the playoffs.

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Grade B-: I thought Mantha had a good end of the season in Washington. Still, anything more than a B- seemed a bit much thanks to ending on a big scoring slump. At the same time, anything less than a B- seemed harsh. It will be fun to see Mantha on this team next season with a training camp and a full season with this team.

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