{"id":890681,"date":"2026-09-13T16:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T16:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/890681\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T16:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T16:06:08","slug":"latest-on-adam-fantilli-pro-hockey-rumors-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/890681\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest On Adam Fantilli \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago, Columbus Blue Jackets General Manager Don Waddell<\/a> expressed optimism<\/a> that the team would sign restricted free agent center Adam Fantilli<\/a> to an extension before training camp. Unfortunately, in the remaining hours of the final weekend before training camp begins, no contact has materialized.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, it appears much will have to change before camp starts on Wednesday to get Fantilli to sign on the dotted line. According to Aaron Portzline of The Athletic<\/a>, there has been little, if any, progress between the Blue Jackets and Fantilli.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a mystery what disagreement remains between Columbus and arguably the team\u2019s top center. The leading theory is that Fantilli and his representation are seeking a deal similar to the contracts signed by the two players drafted ahead of him in the 2023 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n

Earlier this summer, due to an offer sheet from the Philadelphia Flyers, Anaheim Ducks center Leo Carlsson<\/a> signed a five-year, $90MM ($18MM AAV) extension in Orange County. In the Midwest, Connor Bedard<\/a> signed a five-year, $75MM ($15MM AAV) extension with the Chicago Blackhawks.<\/p>\n

So far, Carlsson has been an identical comparison to Fantilli. Carlsson has scored 61 goals and 141 points in his first 201 professional games, while Fantilli has netted 67 goals and 140 points in his first 213 contests. Still, Carlsson\u2019s path to an extension required an extra hurdle, while Bedard signed an extension directly with Chicago.<\/p>\n

From the Blue Jackets\u2019 perspective, they can\u2019t reach that level with Fantilli. According to PuckPedia<\/a>, Columbus has approximately $12.65MM in cap space. The Blue Jackets can still make Fantilli one of the league\u2019s highest-paid players, but they would be operating far closer to the salary cap\u2019s Upper Limit than they typically do.<\/p>\n

Regardless, with other important extensions on the horizon for Zach Werenski<\/a> and Kirill Marchenko<\/a>, the Blue Jackets can\u2019t afford to be without one of their best offensive talents for much longer. As training camp begins next week, one of the sides will have to bend for a contract to be finalized.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A few weeks ago, Columbus Blue Jackets General Manager Don Waddell expressed optimism that the team would sign…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":890682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[51757,64,63,3936,575,85],"class_list":["post-890681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-adam-fantilli","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-columbus-blue-jackets","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}