Now that we're a few weeks into the season, it's time we acknowledge a simple truth: both the Columbus Blue Jackets and newly-extended centerman Adam Fantilli are off to very slow starts. But while it's entirely appropriate to hit the panic button at this point for the club; for Fantilli's offensive production specifically, it's not time to hit that button just yet.
First, let's start by acknowledging the good portions of Adam's play to begin the season: his newly-found consistent defensive effort. For beginners, Mo has been unconscious so far this season in the faceoff dot.
Per Fox Sports, out of the 25 players that have at least 75 faceoff wins already on the young campaign (of which Fantilli has 96, good for 12th) he is in 1st place with a 66.7% draw win percentage after Tuesday's action against the Toronto Maple Leafs. We asked him to be better in the faceoff dot at the end of last season, and the young forward has certainly obliged.
The Knies - Fantilli - Johnson line, while being stymied offensively, has been one of the better defensive forward units in the NHL despite their tough competition as well. Expected Goals against per 60 minutes against that line is a measly 1.74 , good for a top 20 forwards combination in the NHL (minimum of 35 minutes played together, per MoneyPuck).
But then we come to the bad. The offense.
Using the same threshold as we did before, we can see that the same Fantilli first line is averaging a pitiful 1.93 Expected Goals for per 60, good for a bottom 15 forwards line in the NHL under the same 35 minutes threshold. It has been a rough start for both of the newcomer to Columbus in Knies and the late comer to training camp in Mo.
Mo's lack of goals isn't for lack of trying. Out of 260+ skaters that have already played in at least 150 minutes this season, Fantilli is 50th in shot attempts per game at 5.4. He trails only Zach Werenski on the club, who is attempting 6.9 shots per game. But, just like the rest of the club, those shots aren't hitting the back of the net.
This seems to be from a combination of chemistry concerns (there's only one line combination, the Sillinger-Coyle-Olivier line, that skated together last year), a lack of familiarity with the offense that Rick Bowness is attempting to run (Knies arrived after training camp, Fantilli missed every single preseason game), and attempting to nail down the team's identity.
Fantilli is coming off a career high campaign with 59 points, and needs to show that he is the over $13m dollar man that Columbus is paying him to be, but he has quite the excuse to ward off at least some criticism of his slow start. Let's revisit this at the end of November.
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