Come west, young man
Ryan Mantha signs three-year, entry-level contract with the Edmonton Oilers
An old ‘Dog is getting a chance to keep learning new hockey tricks, starting next season at the pro level.
Niagara IceDogs captain Ryan Mantha, 20, used general manager Joey Burke’s pen at a signing ceremony to formally accept an offer of a three-year contract from the Edmonton Oilers.
Held after practice in the Ontario Hockey League team’s boardroom at Meridian Centre, a photo op that also featured IceDogs head coach Dave Bell was timed to coincide with the official release of the announcement by the NHL team.
Terms of the entry-level deal, which includes a signing bonus, were not disclosed. Under the guaranteed contract, the 6-foot6, 225-pound defenceman would receive one rate of pay if he makes the Oilers and a lower salary should be assigned to the Bakersfield Condors, the team’s American Hockey League affiliate and top farm club in California.
“Obviously, I want to be with the Oilers from Day 1, but I will go wherever they send me,” the nephew of one-time NHLer Moe Mantha said, beaming from ear to ear. “I just want to play hockey.” Mantha, an overager completing his third season with the IceDogs and his final year of eligibility, signed the contract as a free agent after failing to come to terms with the New York Rangers, the team that selected him in the fourth round with the 104th overall selection in the 2014 NHL Draft.
New York offered Mantha a contract after he attended Rangers training camp for a second time, but he found the offer wanting and left it on the table.
“I just thought I was worth more as a player, and I knew the potential that I had,” he said.
Mantha said he never felt rejecting the offer from the Rangers would leave him forever stranded on the dock while his ship sailed away without him.
“For me, it was not a risk, but another opportunity to improve as a hockey player.”
Interest from other NHL teams began building since Mantha started the 2016-17 OHL season as a free agent. Interest was especially keen from five to six clubs, excluding the Oilers, “but it never got past the talking stage.”
Mantha is happy he accepted Edmonton’s offer, and he thinks his style of play – steady defence punctuated by bursts of offence – will fit in well with the Oilers system.
“They like the way I play and that has given me, and gives me, a lot of confidence.”
Neither Mantha nor Bell would identify the other teams who expressed interest in acquiring the two-way defenceman.
“Let’s just say there were always scouts in the building,” said Bell, who concidentally spent the 200203 season in Bakersfield when the Condors played in the West Coast Hockey League.
The IceDogs head coach quipped other than “telling him where to get a meal” in the inland California city of 370,000, “there’s not much else that I can tell him.”
“He already presents himself as a pro, and he already knows what he needs to do to reach the next level.”
Bell said naming Mantha captain was “probably the smartest thing I did” since becoming the team’s bench boss.
“No, strike that, it wasn’t the smartest thing,” Bell said. “He didn’t have to grow in the role, he was already a leader.”
“Just watch how he presents himself, and you can see what I mean.”
The right-shot defenceman has 14 goals and 37 assists for 51 points in 58 games so far this season. Those total include eight goals and eight assists on the power play.
Niagara hosted the Kitchener Rangers in a 7 p.m. faceoff Thursday, the IceDogs’ first home game since starting a five-game stretch on the road on Feb. 11 to accommodate the Scotties Tournament of Hearts national women’s curling championships.
Niagara, the Ottawa 67’s and North Bay Battalion are in a three-way race to clinch the eighth, and final, playoff berth in the eastern conference.
Heading into Thursday night action Ottawa, 22-31-5-1; and the IceDogs, 20-29-6-4; each have 50 points, but Ottawa sits in seventh place based on wins. North Bay, 2233-3-1; is in ninth place, two points back.