- Adam Fantilli has missed four straight days of Blue Jackets training camp without a contract
- Don Waddell promised a new proposal on Sept. 16 and the two sides still have not closed the gap
- Read below for the Ryan Johansen holdout that ended three days before Columbus opened in 2014
Adam Fantilli has now missed four straight days of Blue Jackets training camp.
The 21-year-old center is still unsigned, and nothing about a deal looks close. Columbus hit the ice Thursday and has run camp without its No. 1 center, who cannot practice or play until his name is on a new contract.
Aaron Portzline of The Athletic, who has covered this team since its first puck drop in 2000, has tracked the standoff the whole way. He relayed general manager Don Waddell’s take on Sept. 16, the day players reported for physicals:
That proposal window came and went. Three days later there is still no contract, and the talks were already crawling before camp opened.
Money is the whole fight. Fantilli went third in the 2023 draft, and the two players picked ahead of him both cashed in this summer. Connor Bedard signed for five years and $75 million in Chicago. Leo Carlsson ended up at $18 million a season in Anaheim after Philadelphia fired in an offer sheet and the Ducks matched, the largest cap hit in league history.
Then Cutter Gauthier re-signed in Anaheim on Sept. 15 for six years and $81 million, a $13.5 million cap hit. One more number on the board, and none of them help Columbus argue for less.
Fantilli’s case is 24 goals and a career-high 59 points in 82 games last season. He has 67 goals and 140 points in 213 career games, all before his 22nd birthday.
Portzline walked through the standoff with Bob McElligott on the first episode of Clear Breakaway, including what the Bedard and Carlsson deals do to Fantilli’s number, why the restricted free agents are holding the hammer this summer, and what Waddell’s internal budget actually allows. Check out the full episode:
He also reached for the obvious Columbus comparison. Ryan Johansen sat out more than two weeks of Blue Jackets camp in 2014 before signing a three-year, $12 million deal with the opener three days away.
Preseason hockey starts tonight. Fantilli still has more time than Johansen did, and it shrinks with every practice he misses.
