Anthony Mantha doesn’t have a surplus of good memories of his time as a member of the Calgary Flames.
To be clear, he doesn’t have many memories of any type in Calgary. At least on the ice.
In November of 2024, he suffered a torn right ACL, which required surgery. That malady limited him to 13 games as a member of the Flames last season. As such, much of his time in Calgary was spent trying to get healthy.
Now a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins, he trekked back to the Stampede City for Wednesday’s game against the Flames.
“Obviously, I didn’t play as many games as I wanted with that team,” Mantha said in Cranberry on Jan. 14. “But it will be fun. I’ll go to dinner with a couple of guys the night before and catch up. It’ll be good.”
It would be fair to label Mantha’s first season with the Penguins as good. In 48 games before Wednesday, he is the team’s fifth-leading scorer with 32 points (14 goals, 18 assists) while averaging 14:56 of ice time per contest.
Most of his five-on-five minutes have come on the second line with fellow newcomer Justin Brazeau and incumbent Evgeni Malkin. But as of late, Mantha and Brazeau have been skating with rookie Ben Kindel on the third line.
And on the occasions Malkin or other mainstay forwards such as Rickard Rakell or Bryan Rust have been absent due to injuries, Mantha has filled in for them on the top power-play unit, largely utilizing his dimensions (6-foot-5, 240 pounds) in a net-front capacity.
The numbers didn't lie tonight as Anthony Mantha scored the Pens' third goal in the first period
— Queen of the Puck (@rbarkleyhockey) December 31, 2025
Pittsburgh Penguins PP%: 29.70 (3rd in NHL, 4.70 ahead of 4th)
Carolina Hurricanes PK%: 80.19 (16th in NHL, 0.19 ahead of 17th)#CarolinaCulture #LetsGoPens #NHL pic.twitter.com/w9EmxcySIL
“He’s been good,” Penguins defenseman Kris Letang said. “He’s a big body with a lot of skill. It’s fun to have a guy like that around the net that’s tough to move but can also make plays.”
Mantha joined the Penguins as an unrestricted free agent in July, signing a one-year deal worth $2.5 million.
(Performance bonuses tied to the number of games he plays can provide him with another $2 million.)
He was actually courted by the Penguins during the 2024 offseason but opted to join the Flames instead.
What gave Calgary the edge that year?
“That’s a good question,” Mantha said. “My agent … he thought I maybe had a better opportunity (with the Flames). They were telling me I could play with (Flames forward Jonathan) Huberdeau. I practiced with him in the offseason. So maybe I was going to find chemistry there. We kind of did early on in Calgary. That was kind of the deciding factor back then.
“Then this (past) summer here, they kind of told me the same thing with (Malkin) a little bit. That’s why I decided to come here.”
To be clear, Mantha isn’t sour toward the Flames over how brief his time was with that team. In fact, he seemed to produce fairly well, generating seven points (four goals, three assists) in 13 games.
But it’s hard for him to muster up many feelings of nostalgia.
“I thought I was playing well those games that I was in,” Mantha said. “Obviously, I try to forget the ACL surgery early in that year. The rest of the year was more so the grind of coming back. That long process of pain/results on the way back. It’s part of my career and something that I have to live with.”
He appears to be happy with where life has him these days as a member of the Penguins.
“Here we are battling for a playoff spot right now,” Mantha said. “Everything has gone well.”
