Anthony Mantha may need to prove himself yet again
It didn’t take long for a good chunk of the NHL’s 2026 class of free agents to get snapped up, as teams acted quickly to make sure they got “their guys” before anyone else could. There are, however, quite a few interesting names still available, as seen at Daily Faceoff‘s list of the best remaining free agents.
Perhaps most surprisingly, Anthony Mantha is still looking for a home. The 31-year-old winger is coming off a career year with the Pittsburgh Penguins, in which he scored 33 goals and 64 points in 81 games. Forwards who can produce that type of offense aren’t typically wanting for suitors, but it’s possible that Mantha, who had been plagued with injury and incosistency prior to last season, may need to put up one more 30-goal campaign before getting the contract he desires.
On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed why Mantha remains unsigned.
Tyler Yaremchuk: There are still some really interesting free agents out there, Hutts. Let’s start with Anthony Mantha. I think that’s probably the most surprising. He’s number one on Matt Larkin’s board, he was a 30-goal scorer last year. I think there’s a part of this where, and I don’t have inside information on this, but did a guy who is coming off a 30-goal season, but the previous number of years has been banged up and inconsistent, is he trying to get paid like a 30-goal guy and every team is being like “Not so fast.”
Carter Hutton: I think at his age and his inconsistency that we’ve seen in the past, it’s probably buyer beware. I guess if you’re Anthony Mantha you’re just sitting here waiting to kind of see where the dust settles, too, in a sense. There’s still going to be a lot of cap space for a lot of these teams, and even if he’s going to have to take a one-year deal, he can probably pull in a pretty good number, and then it’s off the books again to help support some players and some teams, and be a guy that can maybe be that second-line scorer. But I think teams are cautious when you talk about Anthony Mantha and his lack of ability to be consistent. But he is a big body, he can play anywhere on the wing, and I think he would add value to a lot of these teams that are in the middle, where maybe you’re not going to be a competing team so you don’t want to overpay him, but we can add him to just be around our players and help facilitate a little bit more offense.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Friday’s episode here…