According to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, the Penguins would’ve liked to bring Anthony Mantha back on a one-year contract. But LeBrun claims the unrestricted free agent who scored 33 goals last season (none in the playoffs) is looking for a multi-year deal.
In this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast, Mark Madden of TribLive and 105.9 The X says that should be a non-starter for the Penguins.
“I think he should go out and try to get more than one year. I don’t blame him,” Madden said. “But I’m surprised the Penguins offered him any deal at all. He’ll be the highest-paid free agent forward, except for (Alex) Tuch from Buffalo. And I bet, somebody out there will not care about his playoff track record, about the knee surgery — just won’t care. They’ll just look at his goals, and say, ‘We need that.’”
What may be even more interesting is what the Penguins could do with forwards Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust.
“I think one will get traded, maybe both. Probably one, and probably Rakell,” Madden said. “I’m not saying they’ll keep Rust because they want to keep an old guy — a crony — around. I just think Rakell might draw the better offer because Rust is a little more injury prone, and Rakell had a good year (24 goals, 24 assists) too.”
As for what the Penguins should do if Rakell or Rust are traded, Madden says that the answer is clear.
“I would put (Ville) Koivunen in the top-six until he proves he can’t do it,” Madden said. “Then make a move in the regular season if you have to. But I just don’t want to see him become Markus Näslund, where he never gets a shot in the top six here for any appreciable length, and you don’t know when he goes someplace else if he can play.”
Madden admits he’s not entrenched in a belief that Koivunen will ever thrive in Pittsburgh, but he wants to see the current Wilkes-Barre/Scranton forward get some extended runway early in 2026-27.
“If you made me say right now, what I think he will turn out to be, it’s a 4-A player,” Madden cautioned. “But I want to find out. This isn’t a team going anywhere, so let’s find out.”
In this week’s podcast, Madden and I also get into the futures of Harrison Brunicke and Sergei Murashov, plus we analyze the big trade that sent Brady Tkachuk from Ottawa to Florida so he can play with his brother, Matthew.
In non-hockey topics, Mark has lots of opinions on the World Cup. We tear into a rough weekend for the Pirates. And we kick around the Brendan Sorsby conversation as well as the Major League Baseball CBA stalemate.