With the Pittsburgh Penguins entering the offseason after a brief return to the postseason, TribLive will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 53 individuals signed to an NHL contract — including those whose deals do not begin until future seasons — with the organization.

Starting with veteran Noel Acciari and going on through to prospect Bill Zonnon, every player will be profiled in alphabetical order.

This series is scheduled to be published every day until June 24, two days before the start of the NHL Draft. In the event of a transaction, that schedule will be altered as necessary.

(Note: All contract information courtesy of Puckpedia.)

Anthony Mantha

Position: Right winger

Shoots: Left

Age: 31

Height: 6-foot-5

Weight: 240 pounds

2025-26 NHL regular season statistics: 81 games, 64 points (33 goals, 31 assists), 15:11 of average ice time per contest

2025-26 NHL postseason statistics: Six games, one point (zero goals, one assist), 13:38 of average ice time per contest

Contract: Signed to a one-year contract with a salary cap hit of $2.5 million. Pending unrestricted free agent on July 1

(Mantha’s contract had a performance bonus of up to $2 million if he reached 80 games. He satisfied the requirements for that bonus.)

Acquired: Unrestricted free agent signing, July 2, 2025

This season: After missing the bulk of the 2024-25 campaign due to a right knee injury, Mantha didn’t have many suitors as an unrestricted free agent during the 2025 offseason.

One stood out in the Penguins, who actually had tried to sign Mantha during the 2024 offseason before he opted to sign with the Calgary Flames instead.

With the opportunity to play with Evgeni Malkin – to say nothing of a lucrative performance bonus based on simply playing games – Mantha joined the Penguins with plenty of hope (in the absence of tangible expectations).

It didn’t take long for those ambitions to be realized as Mantha opened the season on the left wing of a stout second line that included Malkin (6-foot-5, 213 pounds) at center and Justin Brazeau (6-foot-6, 232 pounds) on the right wing.

Helping the Penguins get off to a surprising 8-2-2 start to the season, Brazeau posted 11 points (six goals, five assists) over that span.

Beyond his offensive tabulations, Mantha proved to be a strong teammate in a variety of ways. That notion was validated during a 2-1 road shootout loss to the New Jersey Devils when he fought rugged Devils defenseman Brenden Dillon in response to Dillon flattening linemate Tommy Novak with a check.

Like a lot of his teammates, Mantha picked things up throughout March as the team was forced to play much of the month without injured franchise center Sidney Crosby.

In 17 games during March, Mantha posted 14 points (nine goals, five assists), including the game-winning goal in a pivotal 8-3 comeback road win against the Metropolitan Division rival New York Islanders on March 30.

Finishing the season as the Penguins’ leader in goals, Mantha created heavy expectations for himself entering the postseason but largely failed to meet them.

Primarily deployed on the third line, Mantha rarely posed a threat to generate offense during a six-game loss to the Philadelphia Flyers in the opening round.

The future: Things really don’t point towards Mantha returning to the Penguins.

Mantha has stated, on record, he would like to sign a multi-year contract for the sake of his family’s stability and Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas seemed lukewarm, at best, when asked about the idea of re-signing Mantha during a scant bit of media availability on May 12.

And that’s fine. Mantha came here on a “prove-it” contract and proved quite a bit with a career season. If he can parlay that success into the type of contract he is pursuing, he has earned that. And given how lean the projected free agent market is, Mantha will have plenty of suitors.

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From the Penguins’ perspective, offering such a contract to Mantha wouldn’t be congruent with the supposed youth movement Dubas has initiated. Signing a player who turns 32 on Sept. 16 to a long-term deal would conceivably impede the paths of prospects such as Ville Koivunen, Rutger McGroarty or others.

For all parties concerned, it might be best for Anthony Mantha to be one and done with the Penguins.