Mantha hopes to remain in Detroit long-term
Ansar Khan of MLive: Detroit Red Wings pending restricted free agent forward Anthony Mantha has missed 28 games this season due to injuries. He believes that it could make contract talks a little trickier.
“It will be complicated, I think,” Mantha said. “My (job) is to play hockey. My agent and Stevie are going to talk. Maybe they’ve started. If not, over the summer and try to see what I could bring to the team in the future.”
The 25-year old currently carries a $3.3 million salary cap hit.
Mantha is hoping the sides are able to work out a long-term deal.
“Hopefully I can stay here for a long time,” Mantha said. “I want to change this team around. I want this team to be competitive. I think we have a good young group of players and we can make the transition, if it’s next year, two years. Hopefully it’s faster than in the long-term, but it feels good to try and be part of that core.”
The Red Wings list of RFAs includes Mantha, Tyler Bertuzzi, Robby Fabbri, Adam Erne, Brendan Perlini, Christoffer Ehn, Madison Bowey, Dmytro Timashov, Evgeny Svechnikov, and Taro Hirose.
Maple Leafs couldn’t find a long-term solution at the trade deadline
TSN: Bob McKenzie has said that the Toronto Maple Leafs did receive calls on pending unrestricted free agent defenseman Tyson Barrie before the trade deadline. The Leafs wanted a right-handed defenseman as part of the return package if they were going to move Barrie.
The Leafs have both Barrie and Cody Ceci as right-handed defensemen who will be UFAs at the end of the season.
Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic: A Q&A with Toronto Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas.
Dubas on the Maple Leafs quiet trade deadline day.
“Yeah. The balance was, it’s a long-term need for us. We just didn’t see a long-term solution that fit what we were looking for there.”
On the projected salary cap discussions at the GM meetings and where they sit going forward.
“We’ve made our bet on where we’re going to attribute the vast majority of our dollars. And so the way that we look at it is that we have to be creative, we have to be innovative and we really have to do a good job at development on the remaining allotment that we have to be at our best. And that’s the path we’ll be on for a while.”
