Caps Make Moves for Mantha, Raffl

Early in the final hour before the NHL's 3 p.m. trade deadline, the Caps engineered one of the larger deadline day deals they've managed in recent years with the Detroit Red Wings. The Caps shipped forwards Jakub Vrana and Richard Panik to the Wings along with their first-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft and their second-round choice in 2022 in exchange for left wing Anthony Mantha.

In Mantha, the Caps gain a third power forward to include in their top six along with Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson. The winger is signed for three years beyond the current campaign at a salary cap hit of $5.7 million, which is likely in the ballpark of what Vrana would command as an impending RFA.
Mantha was Detroit's first-round pick (20th overall) in the 2013 NHL Draft. The 26-year-old Quebec native has amassed 95 goals and 194 points in 302 career NHL contests with a Red Wings team that hasn't had nearly as much offensive talent as Washington. His nightly average ice time has climbed from 15:54 in his first full season in the League in 2016-17 to 18:54 last season, before declining slightly to 18:15 this season.
In his last 85 NHL games - the sum total of last season and this season - Mantha has piled up 27 goals and 32 assists for 59 points, with eight goals and three assists coming on the power play. A 6-foot-5, 234-pound winger, he is tough to handle down low in the offensive zone and along the walls. Although not as fleet afoot as the speedy Vrana, Mantha skates well for his size. Mantha has put up strong possession numbers on a weak Wings team as well.
Since the start of the 2017-18 NHL season, Mantha has a 6.6 relative shot attempt percentage at 5-on-5, which is the second highest rate in the League among players with 200 or more games played over that span, trailing only Boston's Patrice Bergeron (7.2%).
Vrana was also a first-round pick, chosen 13th overall in the 2014 NHL Draft. A member of Washington's 2017-18 Stanley Cup championship team, Vrana scored 24 goals the following season and 25 last season. His production and ice time both dipped a bit this season, and the Caps opted to upgrade his lineup slot to try to make a run at another Stanley Cup this spring and summer.
With Vrana's departure, the Caps are down to nine players remaining from their Stanley Cup run of three years ago.
Panik spent the last two seasons in the District, totaling a dozen goals and 31 points in 95 games for the Caps. He was a 16-minute a night player in the two seasons prior to his arrival here, but was only used for 11:26 per night during his days in D.C. Detroit becomes the sixth NHL team for Panik, who is now in his ninth NHL season.
The 30-year-old Panik's cap hit of $2.75 comes off the books for the next two seasons.

Shortly after completing the Mantha trade, the Caps also shipped Vegas' fifth-round pick in 2021 - which Washington obtained in the Chandler Stephenson trade in 2019 - to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for veteran winger Michael Raffl.
Raffl, a 32-year-old native of Austria, has spent his entire 504-game NHL career with the Flyers, totaling 81 goals and 79 assists for 160 points. He is a two-way, bottom six winger who gives the Caps some additional depth down the stretch and into the playoffs. Raffl has amassed 28 games worth of Stanley Cup playoff experience, picking up five goals and eight points in the process.
Essentially, Washington upgraded its second line left wing slot and its depth forward position, and in Mantha, it obtained a player in his prime who is under contract for the next three seasons. The picks going Detroit's way in the deal can be seen as the cost of those upgrades.