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Detroit Red Wings: Things To Learn From Mitch Marner’s Holdout

By Tyler Kotila

TORONTO, ON - FEBRUARY 27: Mitchell Marner #16 of the Toronto Maple Leafs breaks in for a shot against the Edmonton Oilers during an NHL game at Scotiabank Arena on February 27, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - FEBRUARY 27: Mitchell Marner #16 of the Toronto Maple Leafs breaks in for a shot against the Edmonton Oilers during an NHL game at Scotiabank Arena on February 27, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) /
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Besides Athanasiou, Mantha is going to be looking for a pay raise too, and the Red Wings will have to allocate money for him as well. How will his negotiations turn out with the organization?

This season, Mantha has the opportunity to be even better, especially after some substantial success with the Team Canada Juniors team that played this summer. Mantha could very well be put on a line with soon-to-be captain Dylan Larkin centering and Tyler Bertuzzi on the opposite wing position. If all goes well, Mantha will grow into an even more prominent scoring role than prior years and see another increase in goals as he develops into a star-caliber player for the Red Wings.

For the 2019-20 season, Mantha is going to make more money than Athanasiou, netting $3.3 million this season. As state above, he will likely be looking for a sizable raise next offseason, and he could very well be looking at a $6.5-7.5 million AAV contract which is just slightly higher than the prediction about Athanasiou’s commitment. Mantha has seemed to have enjoyed his time with the Red Wings and has not had any contract issues with the Red Wings, so keeping him around should not be an issue.

The only thing that could cause Mantha to have contract issues would be this trend in the league’s free agency where players are holding out. The players who hold out have been leveraging their skill-sets for more money, mostly being stubborn (i.e., Marner). Personally, it does not seem like Mantha will be an issue for Yzerman as Athanasiou may, but there’s nothing stopping him from holding out until later in the summer to make sure he gets the money he feels he deserves.

The most uncertain things about all of this are offer sheets if the “Gentleman’s Agreement” of the league is violated and a team decides to leverage an offer sheet to either Mantha or Athanasiou. It happened this past offseason with the Carolina Hurricanes and Sebastian Aho, who eventually was resigned, trumping the New York Islanders offer sheet.

If a team does this, it could add an interesting dynamic to the situation. For the simplicity of it all, these two guys could potentially hold out, and the Red Wings need to see what’s happening in the league right now and learn from it.

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