Or we could save the $6M on somebody actually worth paying

Erik really betting on himself by signing that deal

He's good. He's going to bounce back. He's the perfect analytics buy low candidate.

(Please ignore that this was Puljujarvi last year)

Man just loves Hoboken.

We have better options in-house to sit in press box. Pass on Mantha.

No press box. change of scenery. top 6 player

Caps accept and I could see Mantha being good with the Devils if he's given the right opportunities

His micro stats all look great still and even his macro-stats are solid. I can imagine he would bounce back with us.

Do we? Like who?

Foote, Holtz, any ELC….combined with $5.5m cap space will go a lot further.

Holtz is already on that team. Mantha isn’t taking his spot.

I like Foote but his spot is in the bottom 6, likely bottom line, replacing Wood.

Mantha has a solid chance of regressing back to a solid top 6 winger, plus he has the size that everyone thinks we lack. Maybe there are better options but I don’t think Mantha is a bad one.

Mantha has a chance of getting bought out this summer. If he does, maybe look at him then. But is incontrovertibly not a top-6 guy in NJ system.

don't see why that's the case. His microstat profile would appear to suggest he'd be quite good as a complimentary piece in our top 6

Incontrovertible is a bit of a stretch. There's absolutely a scenario where Holtz doesn't look like he's ready for those minutes and a regressed Mantha can hop in and compliment Nico or Jack and Bratt or Mercer or Meier in the top 6. Mantha was comfortably a top 6 winger prior to last season. He's getting bought out because of his contract, not because he's atrociously bad or anything.

My top-6 comment was more about system. Devils, especially top-6, play a style of game based on possession, speed, transition. They want to hold onto the puck and wear opponents down with attacking style. They want to use open ice, avoid the boards. Adding a pucks-down-low big body does not help Jack and Nico’s lines unless they can play that same style as the the approach is iterative.

He may be suited for Wood’s old spot if he had a lower AAV. That line holds a very different objective than our top-6.