short shift pod put it pretty perfectly (gross alliteration) - if you dont know all that much about a prospect, and most of us dont know all that much about mantykivi other than box scores and 10 second highlights from dom, you shouldnt get too mad about not signing him. he was a 6th round pick.
I look at it from the business side of things. But I do believe he earned a chance. I've said a hundred times, that doesn't mean he would make it. He did everything they asked of him, including showing up at development camp when they asked him to (except the covid years) and paid his own expenses to do so. He became the best defensive forward in Liiga and put up half a point per game in doing so and then doubled that in the playoffs.
They had two options when/if signing him:
A) it would have been a two-year ELC with about $80,000 in salary in the AHL. Last I checked, they still have to ice a team in Providence. That's less money than what they signed Owen Pederson for who might just be nothing more than a Justin Brazeau replacement. So, all it would have cost them is a contract spot and some pennies. They paid Mitchell Miller $177,500 to sit at home.
B) Sign him to his ELC and loan him back to Ilves where, get this, he already has a contract. They'd be on the hook for exactly zero dollars and only count as a contract spot. They have 28 open contract spots for next season and I doubt they get passed 44 when the offseason is done.
At least your protecting the asset - that is getting paper thin - and hope that he either pans out OR builds enough interest that they could recoup something in a trade.
If at the end of his ELC he doesn't pan out, you don't bring him back.
I really don't think this was a Lars Volden or Cedric Pare or Daniel Bukac situation.
