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Red Wings VP Devellano Was Right All Along About Mantha

In 2015 Detroit Sr VP described top pick as disappointing

Published

4 months ago

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Anthony Mantha, Washington Capitals
Former Red Wings first rounder Anthony Mantha has been told be won't be back with the Vegas Golden Knights.

Detroit Red Wings fans owe Jimmy Devellano an apology regarding Anthony Mantha.

In 2015, after watching a performance with the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins from 2013 top draft pick Mantha that left much to be desired, Devellano called out Mantha, citing him as disappointing.

At the time, the club’s fan base took Devellano to task for his words. The feeling was he was being too harsh on a young player who only recently turned pro.

All these years later, Mantha’s up and down career is proving Devellano right – time and time again.

As an NHLer, Mantha is a disappointment. And he’s already done disappointing his latest NHL team.

Mantha told RDS, the French-language version of TSN, that the Vegas Golden Knights have informed him that they won’t be offering the impending UFA a contract.

This news is not the least bit surprising.

A trade-deadline acquistion by the Golden Knights. Vegas was barely half way through the club’s opening-round playoff series against the Dallas Stars when the club determined that the best spot for Mantha was in the press box as a healthy scratch.

Mantha Underwhelming Performer For Red Wings

The Washington Capitals dealt Mantha to the Golden Knights. With the Capitals, Mantha was much the same player that had been the cause of frustration for years in Detroit. At times, he would deliver the goods and show the promise that made him the 20th player chosen in the 2013 NHL entry draft.

Then again, he’d be leaving the team’s braintrust exasperated with his inconsistent play and waning effort. Mantha would find himself toiling on the fourth line during his Washington days and even as a healthy scratch.

In Detroit, the Red Wings saw Mantha with the potential to be a 30-goal scorer if he would accept the role of a net-front presence. Then Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill even went as far as to show Mantha video of net-front wizard James van Riemsdyk at work.

Mantha, though, didn’t want to go there. There would be games – too many of them for a player of his ilk – when he’d go without a single shot.

His inconsistencies drove Blashill to frustration. At one point during his tenure, he said of Mantha that the player needed to be “way, way better.”

Years later, that same descriptive still is applicable to Mantha, 29, as he readies to begin the search for his fourth NHL club.

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