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Mantha a victim of hype machine |
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The fall was hard and sudden and it says here, vastly overblown.
Coming off a season in which he led the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in scoring and was named Canadian Hockey League player of the year, much was expected of left-winger Anthony Mantha, the first choice of the Detroit Red Wings in the 2013 NHL entry draft.
Much too much, as a matter of fact.
“It was difficult, especially right off the bat like that after coming off a great season,” Mantha said. “It was hard from the mental side as well as the physical side.”
Mantha’s bad luck began in Detroit’s fall prospects camp, when he fractured his right tibia. That set him behind the curve compared to the rest of the players and when he got to AHL Grand Rapids after a two-month recovery, he struggled to make the adjustment to pro hockey.
“It’s part of adversity,” Mantha said. “You need to build through it and come out stronger.”
There was public criticism of Mantha’s performance aired by Detroit senior vice-president Jimmy Devellano and unfounded trade rumors involving him during the spring.
“I didn’t really listen to his comments,” Mantha said of Devellano. “We were in playoffs. I talked to Blash (current Detroit coach Jeff Blashill, then in charge of Grand Rapids) a little bit and he just told me to keep playing my way. So we tried to just keep that aside.
“As for the trade rumors, I’m in a business in hockey. If they wanted to trade me, they would have and if not, I’m still here and my goal stays the same. I want to play for Detroit.”
Mantha saw action in 62 games for Grand Rapids and put up 15-18-33 numbers – not sensational, but hardly embarrassing for a first-year pro. But social media and Red Wings fans had whipped Mantha-mania into a fervor, and that drove his stock exorbitantly and ridiculously through the roof.
By way of comparison, left-winger Tomas Tatar, Detroit’s leading goal scorer last season with 29, put up numbers remarkably similar in his inaugural season with Grand Rapids, posting 16-16-32 totals in 58 games in 2009-10.
Tatar just didn’t have the hype machine touting him as Detroit’s next superstar when he arrived and back then, Twitter was a sound birds made.
Mantha can take the criticism and it hasn’t deterred him one bit from the mission at hand, to evolve into an NHLer.
“It always has been,” Mantha said. “I won’t lie. This is the same this year. I’m a little bit more confident than last season. I need to keep showing stuff to the organization and I need to come in September and be ready for a fresh, new start. My goal is the same, to play in the NHL, so I need to come here and be ready and have a better season for sure.
“I need to come here and maybe try playing a few exhibition games. I’ve only had one in two camps so far, so I obviously aim for quite a few exhibition games this year and build off of that and try to make the lineup for sure.”
Like those who cheer for the team, Detroit’s management wants nothing but the best for Mantha. But unlike those who cheer for the team, they aren’t going to be driven to rush to judgement by outside hype.
In fact, expect Mantha to being next season where he ended this season – learning the game in Grand Rapids.
“Realistically I think it’s going to be a struggle for him to make the team, Detroit general manager Ken Holland said. “I use the words ‘earn the jersey.’ You’ve got to come in and take a job.
We’ve probably got 14, 15, 16 forwards we think can legitimately fight for a spot on the team. I’m not even sure if Anthony is in that group.”
Far East Conference
Two of the more curious participants in the Wings’ development camp, which concluded Tuesday in Traverse City, Mich., were right-winger Jin-Hui Ahn and defenseman Won-Jun Kim from the South Korean national team.
South Korea will be part of the next Olympic hockey tournament in 2018 as host country and former NHL defenseman Jim Paek, a Stanley Cup winner with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1990-91 and 1991-92 is coaching the team and he took advantage of his Detroit connections to get a couple of his players some NHL schooling.
“Jimmy Paek was Jeff Blashill’s assistant coach in Grand Rapids a couple years ago, and he’s now running the Korean national program,” Holland said. “Jimmy Paek reached out to us to help their program and he asked if he could send us a couple players over.
“We’re trying to help out Jimmy Paek and at the same time help out hockey in general.”
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