Another of the big Trade Deadline pieces is on the move as Darren Dreger reported that Vegas acquired winger Anthony Mantha from the Washington Capitals. Going the other way is a 2024 second-round pick and a 2026 fourth-round pick.

Mantha was in the midst of his best offensive season since leaving Detroit with 20 goals and 34 points in 56 games for Washington, playing third-line minutes for the first half of the season. Let's break down the impact.

What Vegas Gets

With the ruptured spleen from Mark Stone, there was a need on the wing for the time being. Though a left shot, Mantha can play both wings and did that for Washington during his tenure, including this season. With the assumption that Stone and Jonathan Marchessault will be the two most-used wingers for Vegas when everyone is healthy, there isn't a lot preventing Mantha from being the third (depending on where they slot Chandler Stephenson).

The bigger issue for Mantha's fantasy value is that no winger outside of Stone and Marchessault has averaged 16 minutes a game this season, and there could be as many as six forwards ahead of him for top power play time, at least five if Mantha can push ahead of Ivan Barbashev, and at least four even with Stone injured. Mantha isn't that far away from top PP time right now, but unless they remove a regular of the top unit, he won't see much of a power play opportunity in the short-term and even less whenever Stone is back. He has killed penalties, and did so as recently as 2022-23, but whether Vegas uses him in that role remains to be seen. All that is to say there may not be much special teams usage for Mantha, and that leaves 14-and-change minutes of even-strength time per game. In a season where he's shooting a career-high 23.3% at even strength (has never cracked 12% before), he's still not even on a 30-goal/82-game pace with that kind of usage in Washington. Temper expectations.

Mantha will likely see an uptick in hits moving to Vegas, and that'll help his peripherals in some leagues, but asking for more than a player that can offer 6-7 goals, 6-7 assists, two shots per game, and one hit per game the rest of the way is asking too much.

This trade does hurt the values of guys like Paul Cotter, Michael Amadio, Brett Howden, and Brendan Brisson. The regulars at the top of the lineup line the two top guys and Barbashev should be fine, but everyone else is knocked down a peg.

Back in Washington, this leaves room for TJ Oshie to have a clear path to top power play time when he returns, and it likely means Sonny Milano has a regular role from here on out.