This season was all about the future of the Red Wings – looking at players close to the end of their careers, or just the beginning. Anthony Mantha began this season at the 70 NHL games played and 39 points mark. Not only did his numbers grow throughout the season, but Mantha’s game did as well.

In this time of transition for the Red Wings organization, Mantha displayed what there is to come and shone bright in the midst of yet another season where Hockeytown will be missing the playoffs.

In the Player Evaluation Tool made by Andi Duroux with data from Corey Szjnader and CJ Turtoro, it uses a 1-10 scale for every stat that has been tracked. Each category is also using even-strength play only to make an even playing field among all players.

As seen above, Mantha has been slightly above-average in most categories. The strongest areas being the age he is performing at and his defense – a winger that is able to limit the amount of goals against and shots against is very valuable. Those are the raw numbers but from what we can see in his transition play this season, he can improve on entering the offensive zone and denying entry into his defensive zone.

Mantha’s raw shot and goal numbers are good for the player he is, but he can improve on the plays that lead up to those shot and goal attempts. With his age, there is certainly time to grow and be the powerful two-way winger that fans dream about.

Only his third year in the league and his first full season, Anthony Mantha came out to impress. Leading the Red Wings with 24 goals is an outstanding individual achievement for a player his age, especially with only 9 of those coming on the powerplay. But it is a little depressing that a player would lead the Red Wings in goals with only 24 – let’s not focus on that though.

His 48 points was good for third among the whole roster and was 8 whole points better than his senior winger colleague, Gustav Nyquist.

While other players like Henrik Zetterberg got a substantial amount of time on the powerplay, Mantha’s time on the man advantage was only 8th on the whole team. Making it even more impressive that he was able to get the points he got and only a quarter of his total coming on the powerplay. Speaking of special teams, it is nice to see his penalty minutes actually decrease while playing 20 more games than the previous season, demonstrating his discipline and how important it is for a player like him to stay out of the box.

Being lonely is hard, and Mantha is certainly lonely in being a positive 5v5 CF% player on this Red Wings team.

Anthony is at the very top in terms of CF% with his 51.55, and only six other Red Wings were at 50% or higher this year. That is a telling sign that some personnel changes are needed, but that’s for another offseason article. Relative to his teammates, Mantha was again at the very top in this stat.

He faced a lot of shot attempts against, but generated a significant amount more while he was on the ice for his teammates. A very good season by this metric for such a young player.

Being the leader in goals on this Red Wings team, his goal-based metric should be in the positives – and they are.

At even-strength, he was able to have a 54.84 GF% and a massive 12.25% increase relative to the other players on this roster.

His expected goals were also in the positives – while he was on the ice the Red Wings were expected to outscore their oppoonents by a total of 4.62 goals, leading in the raw metric as well as relative to his teammates.

Overall, Mantha is a goal machine on this team. If he can perform like this with the roster that is around him, imagine what he could do with a fluid defense and some offensive support.

Anthony Mantha will have only his second full season being a Red Wing next year. At the age of 24, much is already expected of him leading the team in certain key stats. But I am sure that with management staying with the status quo or selling some assets, that Mantha might see a down year in the 2018-19 season.

His 12.6 sh% is quite high and is not exactly sustainable, but as seen through his expected goals, he can be just in the right place at the right time and put the puck in the net.

Mantha is destined to have an increased role on the powerplay next year, so that might balance everything out. But I am still going to expect at least 20 goals and 45 points from him next year, as his playmaking ability can improve.

As one of the young players that management and fans want to hold on to so badly, Mantha is proved his worth throughout the 2017-18 season. He played an important role on the Red Wings and most likely will for years to come. A positive shot attempt and expected goals player is one that teams crave for so badly, and if he was able to do it on this year’s Red Wings – he will be a star on a playoff-bound team.

He is one of the good ones.