Time to shop Anthony Mantha?

One of the hottest questions surrounding the Washington Capitals this summer is whether or not they should trade Anthony Mantha. We don’t have to share his stats. If you want a further breakdown of that you can check out his report card here. It speaks for itself.

Mantha’s low point in the season came in January when he was scratched four times in six games. At the end he had just 11 goals and 16 assists in 67 games which was the lowest in a full season in his career.

Mantha opened up about his struggles at breakdown day:

“Being scratched is a hard hit in the face but you come back and try to get things going and get your confidence and sometimes it’s way harder than people can imagine. Putting extra pressure on yourself, putting extra details and then you go out there and you’re actually thinking more than you were before. Obviously, it’s not the season I wanted. I want to come back here and prove to everyone, including myself, that they came to get me for a reason and that’s exactly my mental state of mind for next year.”

Mantha went on to hire a mental coach based out of Toronto. He reported to the media that he attended two sessions thus far and was making progress. He’s going to work with him throughout the offseason and next season.

Caps Twitter has been divided when it comes to Mantha. Good advanced stats? Yes. Good size? Yes. But if he was a little bit better he could be just as effective as Tom Wilson.

But what the Caps lost in exchange for Mantha was speed. They gave up Jakub Vrana and he thrived after the Detroit Red Wings sent him to the St. Louis Blues.

Perhaps shop Mantha to a team looking for that physicality and give him a fresh start. Get that speed back in return.