golffuul
Registered User
- Oct 24, 2011
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Probably DeBrusk and Gryzelck or a prospect/draft pick, depending on what we send along with Mantha.I said last year the smart play was to trade Mantha at the deadline.
Why? Because I didn't really see him as a future piece and I thought his trade value was never, ever, ever going to be higher.
1) He was in the midst of his most productive year.
2) The team that bought him could have the rights to lock him up for a long time, or for 3-4 years.
Now we're looking at Mantha with 5 goals and 9 points through 21 games. That's less than a 20G 40PT pace. He's been benched once.
What's his value like now?
Mind you, this is just the value you're going to get. Not saying that Boston is the best we can do.
Mantha's 26 and I doubt we will re-sign him when his contract is up, which means he is not part of the future of the franchise, in my opinion. If he had shown an effort level worthy of the contract he received, instead of being another Abdelkader, I might think differently. But he hasn't shown that he can self motivate and so even though his skills are good, and he might play better for another team...we aren't going to get "immediate" value for him that will help our team in the next year or two. So our best bet is to get someone younger who either has soured on another team after playing well in prior seasons (DeBrusk), or work on getting a high-grade prospect from a contending team, like Liam Foudy from Columbus. Or maybe go after Konecny from Philly.
There are options, and you have to think Yzerman has to consider all of them, depending on whether the player has the right fit for the kind of team we want to become.