Anthony Mantha arrived in New Jersey with the kind of resume that should have slotted him neatly into a top-six role. Instead, just four games into the Devils’ season, he already looks like a player who may be fighting to keep his place in the picture.
The Devils signed Mantha to a two-year deal with an average annual value of $4.75 million and no trade protection after his career-best regular season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, when he scored 33 goals. On paper, that looked like a win for New Jersey - a scoring winger who could line up with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt and give the Devils another dangerous option up front.
That’s not how it has played out so far.
Mantha has no points through four games, and his start has been a far cry from the production he showed last season. He has had chances, but he’s missed the net on open looks, hasn’t left much of an imprint, and still hasn’t scored a goal. The one notable contribution came in the home opener against the Philadelphia Flyers, when he set a solid screen that led to a goal.
The Devils’ slow starts have only made the scrutiny sharper. Against the Utah Mammoth, the team took a penalty in the first ten seconds, prompting both the club and Sheldon Keefe to say they needed better starts and fewer early penalties. Then against the Vancouver Canucks, Mantha took a hooking penalty less than five minutes into the game, and Vancouver scored on the power play.
That matters when a team has opened all four games of the season by falling behind 1-0. Fans are already frustrated by a problem that has lingered for the last few seasons, and Mantha hasn’t helped ease that feeling. If anything, he has been part of the early drag.
Keefe’s usage hints that the leash may already be shortening. Mantha logged 17 minutes and 24 seconds in the season opener, but his ice time has dropped in each of the three games since. Against the Canucks, he was the only Devil who didn’t reach at least 10 minutes.
So where does he fit now? Connor Brown is expected back soon, and the Amadeus Lombardi-Cody Glass-Jesper Boqvist line has made the fourth line look settled for now. That leaves the middle six as Mantha’s most likely landing spot.
The options are there in theory. Keefe could try him on the right side of Nico Hischier and Timo Meier, or with Arseni Gritsyuk and Evan Rodrigues. Luke Evangelista has started well alongside Hischier and Meier, which points to the likeliest setup being Mantha on the third line with Gritsyuk and Rodrigues.
For a player coming off a 33-goal season, that would be a step down. It’s not where Devils fans expected him to be, and probably not where Mantha expected to be either.
And if this early stretch is a sign of a bigger problem, New Jersey has other names waiting in the wings. Lenni Hameenaho, Shane LaChance, and even the emerging Matyas Melovsky could start pushing him from the AHL side of the equation if he doesn’t show he belongs in the top six.
There’s still a long season ahead, and four games is a tiny sample. But the Devils didn’t bring in Anthony Mantha to disappear.
They brought him in to score. Right now, they’re still waiting for the version of him that buried 33 goals last season.
In Other News...
Devils Face An Early Roster Test As Blue Line Help Arrives
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At the same time, the blue line is getting healthier with Johnathan Kovacevic and Jonas Siegenthaler working their way back from injury, while new goaltender Remi Poirier has already joined practice and is settling in with the group. For a team trying to stabilize early in the season, the next step is balancing those returns with the current crease setup and the cap room created by moving Noesen out. [Read more 🡒]
Devils Win Came With A Goalie Twist Few Fans Will Believe
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Lankinen allowed one goal on three shots, and because of the way the game unfolded, that lone puck past him ended up carrying the most weight. New Jersey rolled to a 4-1 win, leaving Lankinen with the loss in a result that will look odd on the stat sheet and even stranger in memory, especially with both goalies season numbers telling very different stories. [Read more 🡒]
Devils Fans Already Have A New Concern With Evan Rodrigues
Evan Rodrigues first season with the Devils has already delivered an early reminder of how thin the line can be between useful edge and avoidable trouble. The NHL Department of Player Safety stepped in after a game against the Canucks and handed Rodrigues a fine for a high-sticking incident that came before a face-off, adding a wrinkle to what had been an otherwise straightforward start in New Jersey.
For Devils fans, the concern is less about one isolated penalty than about the kind of attention it can bring so early in a player's time with the club. Rodrigues had been in the league long enough to avoid supplemental discipline until now, which only makes this episode stand out a little more as the season moves forward and New Jersey keeps sorting out how much it can lean on him. [Read more 🡒]