Vitals
Player: Anthony Mantha
Born: Sep 16, 1994
Height: 6’5”
Weight: 240 pounds
Hometown: Longueuil, Quebec, Canada
Shoots: Left
Draft: First round pick (20th overall) in 2013 with Detroit Red Wings
2024-25 Statistics: 81 games played; 33 goals; 31 assists; 64 points; one assist in six playoff games
Contract Status: Impending free agent on July 1, completed a one-year contract
Story of the Season
“It just goes back to all the work I put in last year. I knew I wanted to be a talked-about player this year. That’s the focus and
mentality I came in [with].” – Anthony Mantha
Mantha gave that quote after a three-point night where he was named the first star of the game on March 30th, in what was likely the most pivotal single game of the Penguins’ whole season against the NY Islanders. NYI came into the game one point ahead of Pittsburgh in the standings for second place in the Metropolitan Division. After that game, Pittsburgh wouldn’t lose their hold on the second spot the rest of the way. It was fitting that Mantha was a primary reason for the success in that game, his two second period goals changed the score from 3-3 to 5-3, on the way to a decisive 8-3 win. He was a driving force that night as he was pretty much all year long to help elevate the Pens back to the playoffs with a team-high 33 goals and career-best 64 point campaign.
Mantha played like he had something to prove, and he certainly did. An ACL injury in 2024-25 ended his season in November. Months before that, his 2023-24 season ended as a playoff healthy scratch for four-straight games for Vegas – hardly what they or he wanted when he was picked up at the deadline with the intentions of being a quality upgrade. It would be a bit dramatic to say Mantha’s NHL career was on the line based on 2025-26 but its future certainly was hanging in the balance after signing a one-year deal worth $2.5 million with the Penguins (plus an addition $2 million in potential incentives).
Just about everything Mantha touched in the regular season turned to gold. Often paired with Justin Brazeau, the two monster wingers spent plenty of time being centered by both Evgeni Malkin and Ben Kindel. No matter who was on the ice with them, it worked with Mantha and Brazeau both shattering their previous personal bests in goals, assists and points on a season. Mantha didn’t get to rack up a ton of minutes or time on the first power play but still found ways to make it count in a supporting role.
The negative came in the playoffs, where Mantha disappeared from the scoreboard besides one assist. The team leader in goals was unable to score his first career NHL playoff goal, now lasting 20 total games. The postseason ended up as an unfortunate coda to a brilliant season.
Overall, Mantha’s time in Pittsburgh should be remembered more for nights like that Islanders game and helping the Penguins qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2022. He was brought on as something of a rehabilitation project and in the end Mantha did something of the same by helping rehabilitate the team in a true win-win outcome for both parties.
Which means go-round in free agency will be looking a lot different for Mantha. Just as he wanted, he will be talked about this summer in NHL circles in a much different manner than last year.
Monthly Splits
via Yahoo
Mantha’s production hit a big dip in November, but other than that was close to being a point per game player in every other month of the year. Considering his role of playing between 13-16 minutes a night and doing most his damage at even strength, that’s really saying something special to maximize the output on a somewhat limited basis considering most skilled players get a larger role. Mantha’s 26 5v5 goals tied for sixth in the entire NHL with such names as Kucherov, Robertson, Gauthier, Necas and Kempe at the same number.
On these reviews we often touch on the importance of March, when the season was hanging in the balance and one or both of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were out for the majority of the games. Mantha was great in March, and you could also see his hit levels rising to season-highs after low metrics at the beginning of the season for the only month he was credited with 1+ hit per game, showing involvement in many aspects.
Regular season 5v5 advanced stats
Data via Natural Stat Trick. Ranking is out of 18 forwards on the team who qualified by playing a minimum of 150 minutes.
Corsi For%: 48.2 (15th)
Goals For%: 56.6 (6th)
xGF%: 50.7 (12th)
Scoring Chance%: 48.1 (17th)
High Danger Scoring Chance%: 51.3 (14th)
5v5 on-ice shooting%: 13.4 (3rd)
On-ice save%: .898 (10th)
Goals/60: 1.51
Assists/60: 1.32
Points/60: 2.83 (2nd)
There was nothing special about territorial domination for Mantha, there certainly was a lot to write home about for being skilled/opportunistic enough to cash in on chances. Popping a 2+ P/60 is nothing new in Mantha’s career, he’s often put together great stretches in small doses. This year he did it for the duration to a higher level than ever before with that 2.83 P/60 that ranked ninth in the entire NHL (min. 500 minutes).
Charts n’at
Via Advanced Hockey Stats and NHL Edge
Pretty sight to see a natural goal scorer’s work. Mantha’s finishing was off the charts good – he recorded a 21.7% shooting percentage when a typical season for him is in the 11-13% range (although he did shoot a higher percentage once at 5v5 in 2023-24 with Washington, which also happened to be during a contract season…) That might lead to some buyer beware for a potential regression in the future, but his hot streak never cooled off this year.
Mantha found a fit with the Penguins, especially hanging out on a third line and going to work on the rush. Give him a good pass and he knows what to do with the puck at that point.
As a big, strong player Mantha could put some pepper on his shots, seven 90+ mph and 24 80+ shots were well above the norm for forwards. While he shot from all over the place, 24 of his goals came from the high danger area in front of the net, which can help explain the finishing numbers. It becomes easier to score when you’re 6’5, 240 and getting to the front of the net with frequency.
NHL players are really a marvel: a 240-pound person coming off an ACL surgery shouldn’t be able to strap skates to their feet and move as fast as what we see above, yet Mantha did. Mantha is not Connor McDavid or Quinn Hughes out there, but to get a body that big to have that much burst at age-31 with his injury history is seriously impressive. It wasn’t always easy – Mantha’s wife posted a light-hearted Instagram story that showed while she was in the hospital recovering giving birth it was her husband getting a massage therapist come right into her room with a table to work on his back. Whatever it took, Mantha was able to play in the first 81 games of the season before getting to rest during the finale, in doing so capturing all $2.0 million of his available bonus money (which got paid in $200k increments for every 10th game played).
Highlights
Questions to ponder
While it seems like an answer to the question has been determined, market forces on a thin free agent pool will push Mantha into commanding a multi-year deal at a much higher rate than the $4.5 million total that was earned this season. Getting a $25 million commitment could be considered a somewhat conservative estimate for the windfall in store on July 1. The Pens probably aren’t going to offer that type of money and term to a supporting level 32-year old for the future, no matter how good the past season was. How they will go about replacing the 33 goals and 64 points headed out the door becomes the real question that Kyle Dubas and company will be wrestling with this summer.
Ideal 2026-27
Mantha has bounced around a bit lately, playing for four different teams (Washington, Vegas, Calgary, Pittsburgh) in less than three calendar years of 2024-26. In ideal for him would be to pair that big ol’ incoming contract with some trade protection to finally provide some stability for a player who has only started+finished three consecutive seasons with the same team one time in his career (with Detroit from 2017-20).
Bottom line
Mantha did everything and more than could be expected in the regular season. He likely had what will go down as being his his finest personal season. You never know how redemption opportunities will wind up, it’s very rare to see one work out as well as this one.
Pensburgh Grade: A
The regular season was unquestionably A+ work (probably even A++). The poor playoff was so bad it leaves enough of an aftertaste to knock a small bit of the superlative off the final grade.
