The Washington Capitals are nowhere near done with their offseason moves. There will be a trade. We don’t know when. We don’t know who for who. But one name that comes up when it comes to trade discussions more than Evgeny Kuznetsov is Anthony Mantha.
So which of the 31 other teams makes perfect sense for a winger trying to find consistency in his game?
Look no further than the Vancouver Canucks.
Could a Mantha for Brock Boeser swap make sense? Elliotte Friedman talked about it back in December.
Mantha carries a cap hit of $5.75 million. Boeser carries a cap hit of $6.65 million. Yes it’ll be more expensive but unlike Mantha, this is a player who has a cap hit above five million that’s actually worth it.
Last season Boeser had 18 goals and 37 assists for 55 points. The year before that he had 23 goals and 23 assists for 46 points. Mantha had just 11 goals and 16 assists for 27 points. While he was injured a lot the previous season, last season he spent a lot of time in the press box as a healthy scratch.
This could work for both sides. Boeser is just three years younger than Mantha and could fill a spot in the top six right wing position. This won’t be terribly expensive for the Canucks either as acquiring Mantha would be a cheaper contract to take on.
Mantha’s $5.7 million cap hit will come off the books next summer regardless so if the Canucks have to bite the bullet now at least it’s only temporary.
It’s a good thing Brian MacLellan isn’t active on Twitter. Man he would be cyberbullied by all of Caps twitter until this trade is complete.
It’s only a matter of time until the Caps do something. Heck they might even trade Mantha after I hit publish to a completely different team and none of what I typed will matter.
But then again they might not. So yeah if I was GMBM I’d be calling Vancouver right about now.