30 goals against easier matchups is like 20-25 goals against 1st line matchups.
There's also the thing called defence in hockey.
30 goals for and 40 against makes you a bad player.
20 for and 15 against makes you a good player.
Larkin was about the same minus as AA last year. That makes him a bad player?
Athanasiou had a heck of a season last year - far more imporessive than Mantha did, given their linemates.
It's not even a debate.
I'm pretty sure that if Mantha and AA switch linemates, AA scores 35-40 goals and Mantha struggles to hit 20.
As good as AA was, I don't think we've topped out on his value.
Mantha rode a two-week hot streak to make his stats look decent at the end of the season.
Some want to see that two-week hot streak, and then his play against World Championship weak sisters, that Mount Manthony is about to erupt. But this guy has been mostly on our top line for 2+ years now. He's not someone who's been held back in the TOI department, or the linemates department.
I just think Mantha will ever the guy some hoped.
I think the Franzen comparison is pretty appropo. Mantha would probably look somewhat better if he had D/Z in their prime. But he'd still be dogged by inconsistency and periods of invisibility.
The Wings have some interesting decisions coming up with Mantha and AA.
If both Mantha and AA hit 30 goals, they're going to get paid. Well over $5M and somewhere near six.
This is it for them. This is the contract where they'll make more than the rest of their contracts combined.
If you want to trade AA or Mantha to avoid that, I can see the wisdom of that, I guess. The flip side to that is, at some point, if you ever want to improve, it's going to require paying players what they've earned.
But if you go the trade route, you still need value. And you should try to address a need.
How I'd rate the needs. And I'm just going to assume the players are 22-26..
1) LHD
2) G
3) C
4) RHD
5) RH Winger
6) LH Winger
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The Risto trade would be a perfect move if he was a LHD. But having RHDs Seider, Hronek and then Kaski and company reduces its attractiveness.