The New Jersey Devils made a few moves this offseason, but after being forced to pivot after the Utah Mammoth matched the offer sheet given to Barrett Hayton, they made likely their most impactful move. Sunny Mehta signed Anthony Mantha to a two-year deal worth a total of $9 million. 

Coming off a 33-goal season, Mantha was one of the best free agents in this year’s class. It took him some time to get the contract he wanted because teams were not willing to go multiple years. That worked out for the Devils because the team needed time to work things out before committing to Mantha.

Now, coming off a 33-goal season, Mantha has to prove he wasn’t a fluke.

Can Anthony Mantha shake off the regression claims?

Mantha had never scored 30+ goals in a season. He only had 25 goals in a season once, and that was back when he was 24 years old. He’s 31 years old now. 

We’ve seen these one-hit wonder seasons in the past. In fact, the New Jersey Devils have been fooled by these seasons. Andreas Johnsson came to the Devils with a 20-goal season under his belt with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but he never came close to that again. 

This feels different. For one, the Devils have two superstar centers who can lift players up. Even with the relative down play from Timo Meier, both Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes have set their teammates up for amazing chances. It’s become a narrative that their teammates can’t finish chances.

Mantha can absolutely finish chances. Most would look at his 21.7% shooting percentage from last season, and they would assume he’s going to come back down to Earth. However, he’s shot over 20 percent three years in a row. It’s usually not sustainable, but Mantha is a different beast. 

It seems like, for now, Mantha makes the most sense with Jesper Bratt and Jack Hughes. Getting together with two players who can distribute the puck at their level will lead to a ton of chances for Mantha. Heck, maybe he will be a 40-goal scorer. 

Mantha could easily dominate on the score sheet, and it would be even better if he were on the top power-play unit. Mantha is going to be a great fit on the Devils, and the goal-scoring should stick around as long as he stays healthy, which has been an issue in the past.

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