Wild new details surface regarding Anthony Mantha and Steve Yzerman

The truth is they lost him to a bigger number.

MLive's Ansar Khan reported that Steve Yzerman offered Mantha a one-year contract worth $5 million before stepping down as general manager on July 15.

Mantha nearly said yes, and the reunion is being written up as a casualty of Yzerman's exit.

That framing flatters Detroit. It also does not survive the salary structure.

The New Jersey Devils signed Mantha to a two-year contract worth $9.5 million on July 15, the same day Yzerman's exit was announced.

The average annual value is $4.75 million, which looks like a discount until you read the breakdown.

Mantha earns $5.4 million in 2026-27 and $4.1 million in 2027-28.

That first season pays $400,000 more than Detroit offered, and it comes with a guaranteed second year.

Detroit's one-year structure asked a 31-year-old coming off ACL surgery in 2024-25 to bet on himself again. He had already done that once, in Pittsburgh, and won.

New Jersey did not slip through a leadership vacuum. New Jersey outbid the Red Wings.

Mantha told NHL.com the two-year commitment was the deciding factor, crediting Devils general manager Sunny Mehta for tracking him since his Washington Capitals years.

Neither reason has anything to do with who signs the paperwork in Detroit.

The Detroit Red Wings averaged 2.91 goals per game last season, 22nd in the NHL, then lost Patrick Kane to the Chicago Blackhawks with Dylan Larkin's trade request still unresolved.

Short-term prove-it money no longer lands a 33-goal scorer, and the next hire should price that in immediately.

Detroit drafted Mantha 20th overall in 2013 and traded him to the Washington Capitals in April 2021.

They have now let him walk twice.

The second time cost $400,000 they chose not to spend.

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