What’s Adam Fantilli’s next contract worth with the Blue Jackets?

It’s been a good summer to be one of the three centers who were chosen with the first three picks of the 2023 NHL Draft.

Leo Carlsson of the Anaheim Ducks will be the league’s highest-paid player this season after the Ducks matched a five-year, $90 million offer sheet he agreed to with the Philadelphia Flyers, and Connor Bedard is now captain of the Chicago Blackhawks after signing a five-year, $75 million contract.

That leaves Adam Fantilli of the Columbus Blue Jackets, the last of the three emerging stars from the 2023 class without a deal for the upcoming season. Fantilli has not proven as much in his time in the league as Carlsson and Bedard have, but coming off an impressive 59-point season in a subpar offensive environment last year, he’s still in line for a major payday.

With salary cap hits skyrocketing as the cap’s upper limit does the same, the price tags for Carlsson and Bedard represent a new normal for what emerging franchise players can command coming off of their entry-level contracts. With training camp here, Fantilli and are reportedly still far apart from Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell in negotiations.

On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed the state of Fantilli’s ongoing negotiations and where his value lies in the new contract landscape.

Tyler Yaremchuk: So obviously the big signings and the big money and $200 million handed out over the course of 36 hours in the NHL. That’s kind of only one half of this story. The other half is that a whole bunch of guys haven’t signed yet, and probably none more notable than Adam Fantilli with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Unlike the Ryan Leonard’s and the Sourdif’s and the Minten’s and all these guys, he’s got three seasons under his belt, and the last two have been pretty damn good. It was a 31-goal campaign in 2024-25, and he followed it up with a nearly 60-point campaign last year playing on a Columbus team where I think it’s probably fair to say he doesn’t have a ton of help… The point being, he’s proven over the last couple of years that he, at age 21… He’s proven he’s a top-of-the-lineup centerman. The Capitals are paying Ryan Leonard $10.5 million, and they aren’t even 100% sure if he can be that. Connor Bedard, who is a step up on a guy like Fantilli obviously, he got himself $15 million. Cutter Gauthier had one good rookie year and got himself $13, and here we have a guy in Fantilli… you can argue if he has a ceiling of a Gauthier or whoever. You can argue if he’s a true franchise, No. 1 centerman, I get that, but he’s the guy Columbus has, and that’s a really important wrinkle in this negotiation, Hutts.

Carter Hutton: If you are to go to this number with Fantilli and bridge him, and you’re not giving him that deal, obviously the eight years is off the table now. The factor is what is he going to be worth after another year as these markets keep growing, as players keep making more money? I think that’s the risk that you run of giving the bridge deal, because on the other side of it… a young guy who’s unproven getting an eight-year deal, you can’t hold it against them, but the factor is if you give him a bridge deal and he throws in a 100-point season in that deal, next thing you know, now he’s a $16, $17, $18 million player.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…