Vegas Golden Knights Acquire Anthony Mantha From Capitals

Mantha’s contract will expire at the end of this season, and with Washington retaining 50 percent of the salary, he’ll only have a cap hit of $2.85 million for the Golden Knights this season. It’s unlikely that he’ll return to the team in 2024-25 given their current salary cap situation, but he can help push them toward back-to-back Stanley Cups this spring.

Capitals Build Toward Future

The Capitals had been a very good team for a long time, but now we’ve seen the last of Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Ovechkin’s career is nearing its end. They need to prepare for the next era of hockey in the United States’ capital city, and the sooner they start, the less painful it’ll be. They acquired some future assets when they sold off some pieces at last year’s deadline, and they decided to do the same thing this year, which was the right decision. There was some belief that they may try to re-sign Mantha, but it would only lead to a very good player stuck on a mediocre team for years to come. For both the player and the organization, moving on from Mantha made much more sense and now they’ll improve their draft stock as a result.

The Capitals have spent quite a while trying to put Ovechkin in a position to succeed as he chases Wayne Gretzky’s goal record. As a result, they’ve somewhat mortgaged some of their future to keep a competitive team around him. Now they’ve acquired some assets that will help replenish their prospect pool, and the players could potentially turn into key pieces for their next core group.

Both teams got what they needed out of this deal, as the Golden Knights got some needed reinforcements as they push toward another Stanley Cup while the Capitals got some assets that can help them build toward their future.