The Capitals, Stanley Cup champions as recently as 2017-18, are listed at the best sports books with odds of +1600 to win the Cup this season.

Mantha, 26, acquired by the Capitals from the Detroit Red Wings in a blockbuster deal at the NHL trade deadline, is the grandson of Andre Pronovost. A left-winger, Pronovost played 556 NHL games with the Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins, Red Wings and Minnesota North Stars. He was part of the Canadiens’ unprecedented run of five straight Stanley Cup championships from 1956-60. Pronovost played for the last four of those winners of five Cups in a row.

He scored 16 goals for the 1957-58 Canadiens and 15 times for the 1961-62 Bruins. Pronovost was on the losing side with the Red Wings during Stanley Cup final losses to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the springs of 1963 and 1964. He was an original North Star in 1967-68.

Mantha’s grandfather would take him to the Habs games, fueling his love for hockey even more.

“When I was younger, he brought me to the rink, brought me skating,” Mantha said. “From around the age of 8-9 to 15-16, he told me to just have fun. Those are the years that you need to have fun.

“Once I started playing junior, he was more talking to me about what I needed to do, probably more of this and that. He knew what the scouts were looking for.

“We would talk on how to get my game better. He’s just been great for me throughout the years.”

Grandpa’s Famous Friends

The players Mantha’s grandfather skated alongside, the men who came to the house to visit and spend time with him and his grandfather, were living legends - Jean Beliveau, Dickie Moore, Boom-Boom Geoffrion, and of course, the captain of those outstanding Montreal teams, Maurice (Rocket) Richard, the first player in NHL history to score 50 goals in a season.

Mantha never saw any of these superstars play the game, but he knew of their exploits - partly due to his grandfather, and partly because when you grow up in Montreal, you learn everything there is to know about the great tradition of the Canadiens.

“Being a French-Canadian, your idol is Maurice Richard,” Anthony said. “He’s probably one of the best players that played hockey. That my grandpa played with him, you know, it’s something he’d tell me stories about.”

Holidays On Ice

Like many Canadian kids, Mantha whiled away much of his free time skating on the pond with his friends and family, honing the skills that would one day make him an NHL first-round draft choice.

“It all comes down to the outdoor rink, with dad, grandpa, sisters, and friends,” Mantha said. “I would live probably a two-minute walking distance from a nice little pond.

“We would bring our net and stay on there for hours.”

Mantha, along with his sisters Kim, Elizabeth and Barbara, his dad Daniel and especially his grandfather would don their blades, grab their sticks and get on the ice and after the puck.

“Still to this day, every Christmas, both families - my mom’s and my dad’s - meet up and we play hockey, a little pick up game,” Mantha said.

Living The Dream

Mantha was three years old when he first learned to skate but soon, hockey was a big part of his young life.

“When I was maybe seven or eight, I remember playing summer hockey,” Mantha said. “We’d always go to some big tournaments, in big cities like Boston, or Toronto. That was far when you are a little kid, and you’d just have so much fun.

“It’s good memories.”

For as far back as he can remember, Mantha thought of nothing other than becoming an NHLer.

“I actually always wanted to be a hockey player,” Mantha said. “In fourth grade, we had to do a future project. When you’re a kid, you just kind of scribble on the page, but I wrote that I wanted to be a pro hockey player.”

His dream came true, and there are times when Mantha wonders if any of the other kids in his class were as lucky as him to get to see their childhood vision come to fruition.

“Who knows?” Mantha wonders. “Maybe there’s a couple of other kids who went on to do exactly what they wrote, but it usually doesn’t happen that way.”