- Don Waddell told Pierre LeBrun he spoke with agent Pat Brisson again and feels there has been progress
- Elliotte Friedman says Columbus needs Fantilli’s number before it can move Kirill Marchenko
- Read below for why the Blue Jackets are now expected to pay Fantilli north of $10 million a season
Adam Fantilli and the Blue Jackets finally have something to show for a month of talks.
General manager Don Waddell arrived in New York on Tuesday for the NHL Board of Governors meeting and told Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic that he spoke with Fantilli’s agent Pat Brisson again a day earlier. Waddell said he feels there has been progress. There is still no deal.
That is the first sign of movement since camp opened. Columbus has now played two preseason games without its No. 1 center, with Sean Monahan and Charlie Coyle splitting his spot on the top line.
Elliotte Friedman was asked on 32 Thoughts whether Kirill Marchenko has a future in Columbus, and he kept landing on Fantilli instead.
“They probably need to know Fantilli’s number before they make other decisions. So when they sign him, then they know okay, we’ve got Fantilli at ‘X’ dollars, and it’s going to be above $10 million. But you got to know where. And then you can figure out okay, where do all these other pieces fit?”
Catch the full episode, with the Fantilli segment starting around the 9:30 mark:
Marchenko is a cap problem hiding inside a cap problem. He is playing on $3.85 million and he is worth far more than that, so any trade sends out a bargain and brings real money in return.
Friedman spelled out why that math stalls without a Fantilli figure.
“If you’re trading a guy out at 3.85 and you’re adding probably one or more pieces that make more than that, you’ve got to know what Fantilli’s number is, so you don’t walk yourself into another salary cap problem,” Friedman said.
He said most people around the league now expect Columbus to open the season with Marchenko and sort the rest out later.
Fantilli had already missed four straight days of camp by the weekend, and he is coming off a 24-goal, career-high 59-point season:
Columbus watched the price climb all summer. Connor Bedard signed for five years and $75 million in Chicago. Leo Carlsson ended up at $18 million a season in Anaheim. Cutter Gauthier re-signed on Sept. 15 for six years and $81 million.
Fantilli went third in that same 2023 draft, one pick behind Carlsson and two behind Bedard. Ten million a year is the floor of this negotiation now, not the ceiling.
