NHL Midseason Report Card: A look at Anthony Mantha so far

The Washington Capitals are one of those teams where "life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get." So how are we going from grading Alex Ovechkin to Anthony Mantha when it comes to midseason grades?

Well we gotta do these report cards in a much different format because we have no idea what the future holds for the pending unrestricted free agent. He could get traded where the Caps would take a little bit of his $5.7 million cap hit.

Unless of course the offers don't get entertained enough then Brian MacLellan and company would have to eat the salary in the deal. Who knows what a return could be. You can't quite trade Mantha to the Chicago Blackhawks for Connor Bedard? Now that's impossible but GMBM is David Blaine if he pulls that off.

Before we look at the basic stats from Mantha lets check out his speed thanks to our good friends at the lovely NHL Edge: top skating speed is 22.75 mph while the average is 22.06. That's a 78 percentile.

He's had 95 speed bursts over 20 mph while the average is 52, good for 84 percent. His skating distance is the top 50 as he avarges 107.02 miles while the average is 87.29.

Mantha has lit up the scoresheet. 16 goals and 10 assists for 26 points will do that. The fact it took 48 games to reach that number and not 67 games for 11 goals is remarkable in itself. While he has struggled lately with one goal and two asists in his last four games, it's still a bargain for any suitors should the Caps shop Mantha.

Grade: This is the easiest it's ever going to be to grade Anthony Mantha. If this is the final grade for him, he goes out with a bang. A+!