Anthony Mantha was brought in to mesh with Jonathan Huberdeau.
A shooting yin, to compliment the passing yang.
However, early on in his Calgary Flames debut Wednesday he found himself playing a much different role:
Negotiator.
With the Flames bench in search of atonement for J.T. Miller’s injury-inducing hit on Kevin Rooney, Mantha gave the Vancouver Canucks’ star forward a choice.
“I don’t think it was a bad hit, so on the bench I was just telling him, ‘choose who you want to go with,’” the Flames newbie told reporters Thursday.
“I told him, ‘I’m probably the (least) tough of all the opponents he could pick from.’”
Quite the sell job from a 6-foot-5, 235-pound veteran with 34 previous fights under his belt.
And while it took some time (and a penalty by Mantha) before Miller would accept, the host eventually obliged at the tail end of a 4-1 first period dominated by Vancouver.
“He came back to me and offered the fight, so obviously I’m going to take it and step up for a teammate,” said Mantha, who promptly lost the duel, yet somehow turned the game with the gesture.
“I did fight a couple times in my career, obviously it’s not what I like to do.
“If it was a cheap shot I would have dropped the gloves the first time I tried grabbing him, but I’m not that guy necessarily. I’d rather give him the option and he steps up as a man and that’s what he did on the second opportunity.”
Minutes before the bout, Mantha had stepped out of the penalty box and scored on a shorthanded breakaway that saw him outrace Quinn Hughes before a deke allowed him to slide the puck under Arturs Silovs.
A sign of life from a team on its heels.
By night’s end the 30-year winger had recorded his third career Gordie Howe hat-trick, with a trio of contributions that were all crucial to the team’s shocking comeback win.
It marked just the sixth time in NHL history a player recorded a goal, assist and a fight in his debut with a team.
It allowed the Flames to demonstrate a tremendous resiliency that saw them dominate the last two periods, leading to four unanswered goals that ultimately helped the Flames claw back for a memorable 6-5 overtime win.
Quite a first impression for the man whose chief task this year is to fire upwards of 300 shots on goal.
“I think he answered the bell and a lot of people probably didn’t expect him to in that situation,” said coach Ryan Huska, who was happy to report again Thursday that Rooney was doing well.
“But I think that’s what makes for a good team, is when they are there for each other.
“Good on Tony, he stepped up. It kind of put the end to all the stuff, so it probably did settle the game down from that point.”
His teammates raved about him after the game, which could go a long way towards helping Mantha gain footing in what is one of his most crucial campaigns yet.
“Two years ago wasn’t great,” said Mantha of an 11-goal season in Washington that left him unsigned and expendable at last year’s deadline when the Capitals turned his 20-goal season into a second and fourth rounder from Vegas.
“Last year was way better for me, and this year is going to be even better.”
Craig Conroy likes Mantha’s size and shot and figured uniting the two casual friends from Quebec could help both.
If Mantha can be productive alongside one of the game’s best passers, the Flames would then have to decide if he’s worth signing to an extension or flipping at the deadline for more assets.
“What you saw (Wednesday) from him is what we’d like to see pretty consistently,” said Huska.
“If he moves his feet, and he’s strong on his stick, then he’s able to win puck battles and he can generate some stuff for us.”
He’ll have every opportunity to do that as Huberdeau’s bookend on a line centred by Martin Pospisil, who buried a Mantha feed early in the third.
The early reviews were positive for a signing initially met with mixed reaction.
“This is 100 per cent a show-me contract,” said the affable winger of his mission.
“That’s how I see it, and that’s how I focused this summer.”
So far, so good.
“Getting the win was the most important,” he said.
“The way the boys just came together in the second and third is a show of character, and I think it’s going to be awesome.”