2024 NHL Trade Deadline Notebook: Analyzing the Anthony Mantha Deal and Latest Rumors

BOSTON—As they so often do during the NHL's trade deadline week, the rumblings from the insiders kicked off Tuesday with rumblings about rumblings. Plenty of respected news-breakers hinted that things were about to pop off, and the eyeball emoji tweets were running rampant.

While we laypeople can find this type of speculation a bit annoying, there's a reason it plays out like this.

Often, so many potential deals are in the works this time of year that it's anyone's guess which one happens first, and there are collective periods of hot and cold when buyers and sellers are all making their rounds at the same time. Insiders can get a temperature for these knowing that something or even multiple things are bound to happen, like two teams closing in on one player and the player's team just needing to pick one. Also, did you know that the league itself has to review and approve trades before they are officially official? Seems obvious, but still, it's a process that can take up to a few hours in some cases.

I could go on, but you get the point: the cryptic rumblings don't always exist purely to annoy us. I was reminded of this when they returned to our feeds Tuesday, and about an hour later Anthony Mantha to the Golden Knights was announced. This was the rumbling that has come to fruition, but several others are now on the radar.

What does the Mantha deal mean for the market? Which of the other rumblings have real legs, and how might teams growing more desperate fit their needs onto their rosters? What are these last few games before the deadline showing us about potential buyers?

Let's take a look at where we're at in this exact moment late Tuesday night, and laugh about how much is bound to change by lunchtime Wednesday.

Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game: Vegas Does It Again with Heist of Mantha

Look, the off-ice game is the off-ice game, and the Vegas Golden Knights have known how to play it since they entered the league in 2017.

They've done it again with one of the first trades of the 2024 deadline week, acquiring a red-hot Anthony Mantha at half-off from the Capitals for a second-round pick in 2024 and a fourth-round pick in 2026.

While plenty of critics act like they are the cap circumventers who cried wolf, I'd like to see you play hockey with a lacerated spleen like Mark Stone suffered.

Besides, even if Vegas were doing something critics would consider sketchy, these rules are set by the NHL. Instead of asking yourself why the Golden Knights tend to make the most of the LTIR rules, maybe you should ask yourself why your team doesn't.

Anyway, I'm a fan of the way the Golden Knights operate, because it yields high-quality, high-octane playoff hockey, and the formula is straightforward: Make a lot of trades for great NHL players. Don't overpay for the future or the past, simply strike while the iron is hot.

The 29-year-old pending UFA has bounced back in a big way after a few down years, and he's on a career pace with 20 goals and 34 points in 56 games. This strikes me as an ideal rental situation considering the Golden Knights will get to release him and manage their cap situation after the playoffs (again, the rules are the rules), and they can take advantage of Mantha's resurgence without worrying about sustainability.

This also makes the $2.85 million cap hit (with the Capitals retaining 50 percent), a drop in the bucket, and it all indicates the Golden Knights might not even be done.

With a 2024 first-round pick, plenty of other future considerations, and about $4.4 million still free after acquiring Mantha, you have to wonder what Vegas has planned next. As it currently stands, though, they've once again put themselves in a position to succeed by trading for an active player having a great season in exchange for non-first-rounders. Now, they get to observe the market and deal from a position of strength if they're to make another move.

Will Elias Lindholm Be Traded...Again?!?

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VANCOUVER, CANADA - FEBRUARY 24: Elias Lindholm #23 of the Vancouver Canucks skates up ice during their NHL game against the Boston Bruins at Rogers Arena on February 24, 2024 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images)

"Hey Elias Lindholm, welcome to the Vancouver Canucks. Hope you're ready to join a historically sad team for a brief moment of nearly unprecedented joy as you help them rise to No. 1 in the league. But I hope you didn't unpack that suitcase, because you're on the rare, perfect line of 'being good enough to trade for something we need a little bit more.'

And oh yeah, we happened to sign our franchise center to a respectable megadeal a few days ago. Thx for the memories."

This is what I'd say if I were the GM of the Canucks given the current situation, but I am no Jim Rutherford or Patrik Allvin. Lindholm, who's got 13 goals and 38 points in 63 games, is a steady two-way player who could make a positive impact as a middle-six center on any contender. The Canucks have a "good problem" in this respect, as they're spoiled with talent down the middle, but they have a "problem problem" in the respect that they're a little thin in the defensive depth department.

That's why the rumor that Lindholm could be flipped again after being traded to Vancouver isn't as shocking if you think about it.

Could a trade benefitting two cap-strapped playoff-bound teams fit here? The Bruins could certainly use reliable center depth, and they have last season's Vezina winner in Linus Ullmark. The Canucks don't need a goaltender by any means, but do you know who does, and had their GM explicitly say so in the media Tuesday? The Devils.

Could a three-way trade or some flipping work here? You could potentially see a similar situation going down with Noah Hanifin, the Massachusetts native who has been linked to the Bruins and the Canucks.

You get the feeling GMs are going to get a bit more creative than usual at this deadline and might be more willing to help each other out to fill their own needs.

Bruins-Oilers Whets the Appetite for What Could Be a Tantalizing Trade Deadline Week

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BOSTON, MA - MARCH 05: Boston Bruins right wing David Pastrnak (88) on the power play uring a game between the Boston Bruins and the Edmonton Oilers on March 5, 2024, at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

'Twas the Tuesday before the trade deadline, and the Bruins and Oilers met up at TD Garden for the event looming large on every hockey fan's mind at the moment: James van Riemsdyk's 1,000th NHL game.

Well, that appeared to be the main event of the night at least, with both teams in a 0-0 stalemate. But it suddenly turned into chaos when Pavel Zacha broke the seal with 15:34 left to play.

That's when the trade deadline-iest game of the week so far broke out. There was a playoff feel between two heavyweights from separate divisions. There was a disallowed goal. There was young Bruins pest Trent Frederic challenging Connor McDavid himself to a fight.

Then, of course, there was Linus Ullmark—who could be on the trade block?—allowing Leon Draisaitl to tie it up with 1:20 left to play , and then there was McDavid to Draisaitl in overtime.

We know how that one tends to end.

The Bruins will take three out of four points in a back-to-back, home-and-home featuring the Leafs and the Oilers most days, but it's tough to know how to feel about this particular overtime loss at the moment. Will it be the turning point that convinced the rightfully on-the-fence front office to surrender their reigning Vezina winner, who has struggled a bit playing second fiddle to emerging No. 1 Jeremy Swayman?

And then if that happens, will we look back on that as the move that brought the Bruins the necessary center depth and/or defense to make a long run, or will we look back on the Bruins giving up their greatest strength—their rare, elite goaltending tandem—as a mind-numbing mistake?

As for the Oilers, it was a typical-as-of-late contest as they won their fifth straight and a full-team effort that didn't even require a Connor McDavid goal. But they can't let the outcome distract them from the fact that another productive winger would've made it a heck of a lot easier.

Could they do it? Could they put together the reported ask for Jake Guentzel: a first-round pick, a solid NHL player and a solid prospect? According to Darren Dreger, they'd better figure out the answer to that question by tomorrow night, when the Penguins hope to have a Guentzel deal done.

This was a pivotal game that should have both sides getting closer to making actual decisions with less than 72 hours until the deadline.

Players Being Held Out for Trade-Related Reasons

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Jason Zucker.

Who else is loving the transparency lately with teams disclosing holding players out of the lineup for "trade-related reasons"?

Not only does it make us fans feel like we're privy to some extra special information, but you could also see a GM scrolling on a burner account and being, like, "Oh, he's available, I should call them."

Jason Zucker and Alex Wennberg are the latest to be held out of their respective lineups for "trade-related reasons," and you sure could imagine either of them on a team like the Rangers.

Zucker is a consistent left-winger suffering a slight dip in production this season, but nothing too egregious with nine goals and 25 points in 51 games on what has slowly but surely become a miserable Coyotes team. You could see him as a somewhat cheap get for veteran playoff depth, but Arizona is a wild card when it comes to, well, everything, and the Predators' first-time NHL GM Barry Trotz mentioned this week that he thinks prices are extremely high.

Seattle's Wennberg has an almost identical season profile with nine goals and 25 points in 60 games, but a better plus-minus if you care (an honest plus-1).

Figuring out what either of these players will go for will really prove Trotz's statement either right or wrong, and it's safe to assume we'll find out eventually thanks to their teams' transparency.