So do Milano and Sheary, yet no one would mistake them for elite snipers. You're the master of numbers, but I don't think goals per 60 scales linearly.
Who should Mantha displace on the PP in your opinion? Johansson is the best at zone entries, Strome is a better distributor of the puck and Oshie can't be displaced on the first wave. If we're arguing about Sheary getting more PP ice time then him, then we have to look at their production in that spot. I think it's a wash there.
As for him not hitting, I would give him a pass for that if he was contributing, but he is not. How can you win the Stanley Cup with players as soft as Mantha? Even a superstar like Stamkos hits more than he does.
Sheary and Milano aren’t better 5v5 goal scorers in the long run than Ovechkin. They’ve just had a little more shooting luck this year.
I guess I just find it tiresome to say Mantha isn’t producing, yet given his minutes he’s scoring goals at a perfectly good top 6 rate, and given his most common linemates perhaps that should mean a bit more.
I also find it odd to say they can’t win a Cup with a guy like Mantha when the guy they traded him for (Vrana) was probably even less physical yet they won a Cup with him in 2018.
I think Mantha needs to be utilized as a facilitator of other star players. He drives play to an extent that others on the team do not. With the problems that skilled players like Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, Strome, and Oshie have driving possession it’s a bit disappointing to see Mantha instead playing alongside less skilled players like Eller and Johansson. Even while Mantha still drives possession it goes to waste because his linemates just aren’t skilled enough to capitalize.
In terms of the power play I’d settle for Mantha on PP2 in a more permanent role, but he’s not even on PP2 now. I’d put him in over Sheary right now but I think the bigger problem is just that the setup is stale and predictable. I think the entries have been better this year (just a hunch, no stats to back it up) yet they still stink overall (25th in GF/60 at 5v4). They don’t have a good shooting option other than Ovechkin and that allows teams to cheat to Ovie and to the bumper spot. With Mantha they could potentially open up another shooting option from the other side, and it’s not like Mantha is a bad playmaker in his own right.