COLUMBUS, Ohio — Through no fault of his own, Adam Fantilli’s rookie season in the NHL could not have gone worse.
Four days before his first NHL training camp, the Columbus Blue Jackets fired coach Mike Babcock amid controversy after the veteran coach was accused of scrolling through some of his young players’ cell phones during face-to-face meetings.
Once the puck dropped, Fantilli showed glimpses of the size, speed and skill that had the Blue Jackets so excited that he fell to them at No. 3 overall in the 2023 draft. But by late November, the losing set in, and Fantilli had already lost more games as a pro (16) than he did his entire season at the University of Michigan.
Then, just as Fantilli was starting to elevate as a player despite the circumstances, he suffered a lacerated left calf when he was inadvertently kicked coming out of a hit vs. Seattle on Jan. 28. After just 49 games, Fantilli’s rookie season was over, and a grueling, frustrating recovery was underway.
“I thought in December and January, I found my stride and started to build on what I want to be as a player for this team,” Fantilli said. “It obviously got taken away, and I wasn’t able to keep going.”
The Blue Jackets have tried desperately to draft No. 1 centers through the years — Derick Brassard, Ryan Johansen, Pierre-Luc Dubois — and it’s never worked, for a myriad of reasons. Steeped in this unfortunate history, it doesn’t take much for Blue Jackets’ fans to fear that history is repeating itself.
But there are no signs of that now.
Fantilli arrived last month at his second NHL training camp completely healthy, looking bigger and stronger and faster than in his rookie season. In six preseason games, he mostly looked like a more assertive player than a year ago, both with and without the puck.
He’s surrounded by a new general manager (Don Waddell), a new coach (Dean Evason) and a dressing room that is now stocked with veteran players who embrace a leadership role.
It feels as if Fantilli, after a false start last season, is now ready for relaunch.
“You learn quite a bit your first year,” Fantilli said. “No matter how hard you train going into your first season, you can’t realize how much harder you have to go until after that. Knowing now what to expect is huge — how hard the games are, how taxing the schedule can be, that kind of thing.
“It’s just good to know how (playing in the NHL) actually feels on your body.”
Working through it
Fantilli was hoping to return from the lacerated calf before the end of last season, but he had a setback in his recovery after he pushed a little too hard, too soon, in his attempt to return. It’s a rehab process that requires an abundance of one tool Fantilli doesn’t have in his bag: patience.
“I have to thank everybody who helped me,” Fantilli said. “A lot of people (nurses, physical therapists, etc.) were dealing with me being maybe a little bit irritable, just missing being on the ice, missing the guys. I want to say thank you to them, and I’m sorry to them.
“I wanted to pull my hair out. It’s not an injury I’d want anybody to go through.”
Fantilli was finally cleared to play in mid-May, and he played an exhibition game for Team Canada at the IIHF World Championships in Czechia. When he learned he’d be an extra for Team Canada once the tournament started, he headed home to continue his offseason training.
“Playing that game helped me feel confident in what I had with my calf,” Fantilli said. “But I still couldn’t run and spring and jump when I was off the ice. Halfway through the summer, that came back and I was able to train full-go the final seven, eight weeks of the summer.”
Fantilli didn’t spend much time home in Toronto once he was able to train full-bore. Instead, he trained with a large group of NHL players just outside Detroit, including Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski.
The focus was on getting faster (power skating) and getting stronger (lots of hours in the gym). But on the ice, Fantilli said, he worked sharpening the finer points of his game, the stuff that most people watching from the stands may never notice.
“The offseason is just honing your skills, try to get more and more and better and better, just adding pieces to your game,” Fantilli said. “Working on rim pickups. Taking different kinds of shots, so that what feels a little unusual now just becomes a habit. That kind of stuff.”
Werenski is a big proponent of dedicating each offseason to improving a single skill or an aspect of his game. When asked if he’s noticed a difference in Fantilli during training camp or the preseason, he didn’t hesitate. In fact, he sounded like former coach John Tortorella describing Werenski’s improvements between his first and second seasons almost a decade ago.
“I feel like there were times (last season) when Fants was wading into it,” Werenski said. “When you’re a younger guy, you can get into the habit of waiting to see how the game is going to be played, and there are only flashes of what you can do.
“Right now, he’s just trying to take the game over right away. He’s playing his ‘A’ game from the start. Bigger, faster and stronger, absolutely, but it’s no longer just the flashes of what he can do. He knows he can play in this league. He knows he can make an impact on this league. And he’s doing it right from the start of the game now.”
In six preseason games, Fantilli had four goals, two assists and a plus-4 rating in six games. He tied for the club lead in goals and points, perhaps a preview of the 2024-25 season.
Get it right
When Waddell took over as general manager in late May, one of his initial goals was to help the dressing room by adding veterans — not just older players who could still play, but guys whose character was considered unassailable.
He added center Sean Monahan, winger James van Riemsdyk and defenseman Jack Johnson to the Jackets’ veteran core of Boone Jenner, Sean Kuraly, Erik Gudbranson and Werenski. It’s no surprise that Gudbranson’s locker is right beside Fantilli’s.
These additions weren’t done because Waddell didn’t trust the Blue Jackets’ plethora of young talent. Quite the opposite. It was done so that the impressive stock of youngsters — gained via the draft through three seasons of struggles — would be shepherded toward realizing their potential the correct way.
“I’ve said all along, we have good veterans,” Waddell said. “But our young players are the ones who are going to take us to that next level.”
With seven first-round picks in the last four drafts, the Blue Jackets should be expected to have one of the best collections of young players and prospects in the league. And they do, according to those who study the next wave of NHL talent.
But there’s one name in that group of young Blue Jackets that stands above the others, one player who is expected to not only to be a highly productive and dynamic NHL player, but to be one of the league’s star players in the very near future.
That’s Fantilli, who turns 20 on Saturday. He’s the one player on the Blue Jackets’ roster who makes scoring goals seem easy.
Evason has played him as a No. 2 center since the start of training camp, slotting him just below Monahan on the top line and Cole Sillinger on the third line. He’s got van Riemsdyk to his left, and, as of Monday, veteran Kevin Labanc on his right.
He’s also drawing power-play time, currently on what appears to be the second unit.
Fantilli also has a new sweater number.
He changed from No. 11 to No. 19, which he’s worn at Michigan and, before that, with Chicago Steel of the United States Hockey League. When Liam Foudy was waived by the Blue Jackets last season and claimed by Nashville, his preferred number became available.
Why No. 19?
“I wore 91 for (former NHL center) Marc Savard,” Fantilli said. “When I got to juniors, we couldn’t go above 30, so I switched it to 19.
“I feel bad for a lot of people who bought (No. 11) jerseys. I got back to Columbus and tried to see as many fans as I could afterward. I did feel bad, but I only had one shot. I couldn’t switch after two years.”
If Fantilli becomes what most expect him to be, there won’t be any apologies necessary.
“I just want to keep going. I want to keep going and get better every single year,” Fantilli said. “As I’ve said before, it’s still the National Hockey League. It doesn’t get any easier just because I’m in my second year. It’s still going to be just as hard if not harder.
“We’ve lost some pieces and we have some younger guys who have to step up. I want to be able to help out as much as possible. That’s kind of the whole plan, just keep my head down and grind.”
(Photo of Adam Fantilli: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
