{"id":515457,"date":"2026-03-05T06:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T06:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/515457\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T06:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T06:58:09","slug":"mantha-rolling-in-the-right-direction-with-penguins-after-torn-acl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/515457\/","title":{"rendered":"Mantha \u2018rolling in the right direction\u2019 with Penguins after torn ACL"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON — There were times Anthony Mantha<\/a>\u00a0worried about his future, about whether he would need to sign a professional tryout agreement to remain in the NHL, about whether there would even be teams interested in what he had to offer.<\/p>\n

He was grinding through rehab for a torn right\u00a0ACL, sustained Nov. 5, 2024. He was 30 years old, coming off a lost season in which he was limited to 13 games because of the injury.<\/p>\n

He questioned if there would be a future.<\/p>\n

“You are wondering, worst-case scenario, what can happen?”\u00a0Mantha said. “You’re kind of mentally preparing for, I don’t know, I’ve been around long enough to maybe get a [tryout] after not playing that many games.”<\/p>\n

The Pittsburgh Penguins were willing to take that bet.<\/p>\n

The Penguins, who had shown interest in\u00a0Mantha the season before, when he signed with the Calgary Flames, took a flier on Mantha on July 2, signing him to a one-year, $2.5 million contract. They hoped he could be what he had been, a big-bodied (6-foot-5, 240 pounds) forward who had the potential to score in the mid-teens in goals, perhaps reach 40 points at his peak.<\/p>\n

Instead,\u00a0Mantha has exceeded those expectations, with NHL career highs in goals and points within his reach 60 games into the season. His 21 goals are four shy of high of the 25 he had with the Detroit Red Wings in 2018-19, and his 45 points are three away from the 48 had with the Red Wings in 2017-18 and 2018-19.<\/p>\n

He’ll continue to close in on those numbers when the Penguins host the Buffalo Sabres at\u00a0PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, SNO, SNE, TVAS).<\/p>\n

“I think he’s attacking the game with the puck, attacking areas,” Penguins coach Dan Muse said. “He’s putting himself in good positions on the inside, whether it’s in the 5-on-5 in the offensive zone or on the power play. He’s a big body with really good hands. Good offensive instincts.<\/p>\n

“So I think when he’s at his best he’s getting into those spots, he’s making himself available around the net, he’s driving play with the puck, driving his legs without the puck, and so I think that’s what he’s doing at his best.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON — There were times Anthony Mantha\u00a0worried about his future, about whether he would need to sign a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-515457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}