No need to trade Mantha with Backy probably hitting LTIR.

Mantha isn't a real asset, why dont you trade and deepen the team and compete while Ovi still got it, one last run. Backstrom and Mantha would be 15M in cap

because Backstrom's 9 million will eventually shift to LTIR. The caps are a team on the fringe, they have no reason to pay to move Mantha (who's having a good start) when they can bury him in Hershey in a worst case scenario.

1g, 1a, 2pts is a good start? That's not even top 5 in scoring on the sharks which is pretty impressive.

Considering his maybe 12 minutes of ice time and majority 4th line usage, yes, and there's more to it than just points. Even if he had an awful start, where's then incentive for Washington to dump him when they can feasibly stay below the salary cap without trading him?

I don't disagree with that but to say a 5mil player is off to a good start and only has 2 points on the year you have to question that. He's a massively overpaid player.