OT: Wings trade Mantha for a #1, a #2, and 2 other forwards
In case you didn't catch it, and with the Wings in the cellar, it's quite possible, but today is NHL trade deadline day...
The title says most of it. Stevie Y just worked some magic and sent Anthony Mantha to the Washington Capitals for:
F Jakub Vrana
F Richard Panik
2021 1st Round Pick
2022 2nd Round Pick
Jakub Vrana in particular has a ton of upside and was the 13th overall pick in 2014. He has more goals than Mantha this season as well. LOL!
The Wings now have a ridiculous amount of picks in this year's draft -- 12! ...and close to that in 2022.
Not only 12 picks this draft and 10 already for the 2022 draft, but the only NHLer under contract in 22-23 is Larkin. Stevie gets to complete remake this team, and he did one hell of a job in Tampa doing the same thing.
The Wings drafting in the last decade of Holland's rule kinda sucked ass. Yzerman tearing it all down and starting over centered around current prospects (like Raymond and Seider) + what's added in the next 2 drafts seems like a sound plan in principle.
Most of Holland's drafting success centered on being the first team to thoroughly scout certain foreign territories. First the Wings beat everyone to the punch on Russian players, then repeated it with Swedish players.
That's a lot harder to do now that you can watch films of games anywhere in the world on the internet.
The first wave of Russian/Swedish players, i.e., 91, 16, & 5 were all Jimmy D.
Holland was a scout and not giving him credit for those. Z and Dats Hollard can claim...
can one of our detroit teams get lucky with the lotto balls? just once please?
Stevie Y working his magic.
Yesterday this happened:
Jon Merrill is now a Hab #ProBlue https://t.co/5gQJT7EUvc
— Michigan Hockey (@umichhockey) April 11, 2021
Praying Mantha is a good trade.
I see what you did there.
The Wings have picks, the NHL is going to be readily available on streaming, all is going according to plan.
In Stevie we trust. It will take some time but I have confidence he will get the Wings to respectability.
Now we just need to not get screwed by the lottery and this rebuild might really come together.
Even if we get screwed we have enough draft capital to move up. Hoping it doesn't come to that but we are in good position here.
A few years ago there was some hype about Mantha becoming a huge superstar, but it just didn't happen at all.
I came to the conclusion long ago that he probably wasn't going to be one... at least not while playing for Detroit.
Hopefully this trade works out for Yzerman and the Red Wings.
Now the Wings need the picks to pan out. It's crazy that when the Wings fell, they fell hard and fast.
I don't know how "fast" it was. After that loss to the Pens in the finals we began a long slow decline. Sure we made the playoffs for a few years after that but we were never in serious contention. It has been a long time since we were in serious Cup contention talk.
Everything they're going through is a result of extending that playoff streak. Most teams missed a playoff or two and wound up with decent picks in-between. They sacrificed a strategic restocking to keep that sucker alive. Holland had his flaws, but it feels that was more of an Illitch management decision. Their lack of luck in the draft lottery hasn't helped either. Most of the teams that have won multiple cups in the last 20+ years had a significant successful reload multiple years in very high spots in the draft (Pittsburgh, Chicago and LA). Wings fans just have to hope they make those decisions and not the multiple years of bad top 4 picks like Edmonton, until you finally land a McDavid.
This is an interesting deal but not really the blockbuster that seems to be reported in some outlets.
The Capitals are a top 4 team in the league so the received pick is definitely late Round. That's good but difference making talent is typically top 10 (seemingly most often top 5). Now, with a dozen picks Yzerman has some room to take the fliers that might develop (and perhaps the lottery ball works out). What the extra one does give is the potential to package that if the lottery ball does not work out.
The Caps getting Detroit to take on Panik is essentially a salary related move and he carries a 2.75 hit for the upcoming two seasons. Seeming to fall out of favour in Washington he cleared waivers earlier this season. Caps were clearly looking to move on.
Vrana is a nice player (RFA though) and that will need to get managed at season's end. He's a solid scorer in the advanced stats world (check out his efficiency) but seemed a bit out of favour this season in Washington (I had him on my fantasy team) and he was healthy scratch recently.
Bottom line, decent return for the Wings given Mantha's limitations. I think he's a solid player and on a team like Washington where he's filling a role he probably sees more upside than the past few years in Detroit. I suspect the GM in Washington saw this context as well. Detroit gets a current 1 which you could use a lot of ways, a futures 2 and some players who seemed out of favour in Washington. In Detroit you could see Vrana getting better minutes and, given his efficiency, solid numbers. Won't be taking him on my fantasy team again tho.
Where did you get that number for Panik? I keep seeing 1.6 mil per year for the next 2 years
Capfriendly says $1.625 thru 2022-23.
Am I reading this incorrectly?
https://www.capfriendly.com/players/richard-panik
It looks like 2.75 under Cap Hit on the table?
April 12th, 2021 at 10:47 PM ^
I believe what you are seeing is his active roster cap hit but if he clears waivers and is on a taxi squad this season or in the minors in the following seasons they save part of his cap hit
What Mantha does in Washington is irrelevant to whether this a good trade or not. Mantha has the ability and should be able to score at minimum 20 goals in Washington with the lineup they have. Personally, I think he should be able to score 30+ in Washington if he's on the right line. He just needs to be motivated because if he's not, he won't be any better then he was in Detroit.
Yzerman did a fine job getting a great return for a player who really didn't play up to his potential, even on a crappy Detroit team. If he played to what he is capable of, the return would probably have been greater, but he probably wouldn't be gone either if that was the case. The rumor I seen was the only "untouchable" players were Raymond, Seider and Larkin.
Panik in Detroit , I ask for an autograph...
Saw Bowie do this song at Olympia in Detroit in February or March of 1976. The place went insane. Thought there was going to be a riot. Glad I was sitting in the mezzanine.
April 12th, 2021 at 10:42 PM ^
No panic in this trade for the Wings. Wait, yes there is.
Great fleecing of the Caps. Mantha needs a cattle prod up his arse to get him going. He'll have two in Washington in Ovechkin and Chara. He'll be playing for a good team that has a chance to win Lord Stanley's Cup. He was not motivated in Detroit because of all of the losing.
Vrana has played well this year, but bear in mind that he is surrounded by talent that he will not have in Detroit. Panik is a good depth guy. The picks are what is most important. This is a weak draft, but the 22 draft looks to be a stronger one.
April 13th, 2021 at 10:16 AM ^
It seems like worth taking a flyer on Vrana but he is basically Mantha surrounded by talent. Both are work-ethic-challenged players so I don't see a huge upside with him rather than Mantha. But 2 extra picks should add some depth to the Wings in a few years, although this year's draft is going to be particularly risky because few players had a full year's worth of games to evaluate. Hope for the best.