Well just when it was looking like we were not going to have a lot to talk about here about the trade deadline, Steve Yzerman pulls off a major deal that sends Anthony Mantha to the Washington Capitals in exchange for a package of a 1st round pick, a 2nd round pick, forward Jakub Vrana, and forward Richard Panik.
The Detroit #RedWings today acquired RW Richard Panik, LW Jakub Vrana, a first-round pick in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft and a second-round pick in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft from the Washington Capitals in exchange for RW Anthony Mantha. pic.twitter.com/Tp8M0uXiJe
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) April 12, 2021
This is a very good return for Mantha, especially considering the prices that some teams have been paying for forwards.
Vrana is a year younger than Mantha, and is at least comparable to him in terms of production. I don’t really care too much about Panik one way or the other, but he’s at least a serviceable NHL player, and we got a 1st and a 2nd. Not only that, the second is 2022, which is shaping up to be a better draft than this season.
It basically feels like we traded Mantha for Vrana, which is at least very close to comparable, then we got two draft picks on top of that.
Prashanth ran this trade through his trade machine. While the result is pretty lopsided, I think Prashanth’s point is a good one. Mantha could easily be better for Washington than he has been for Detroit, so you can see why they took that bet
Trade machine loves this deal for DET but I think Mantha has a serious chance to rebound in a big way in Washington. Think this is a very solid deal for both teams pic.twitter.com/h8bA9EkM8Z
— Prashanth Iyer (@iyer_prashanth) April 12, 2021
So…wow. Was not really expecting this today.