With the prospects tournament under way in Detroit, it's almost time for Blue Jackets training camp. Main camp begins on Wednesday with physicals and media availability. On Thursday, on-ice sessions begin. That means the clock is ticking for the team to get Adam Fantilli signed.
In fact, time is almost up. A contract will need to be in hand within the next 48 hours, in order to get the team's budding star #1 center to town before everything gets under way. Despite Don Waddell's 100% confidence that a deal will get done, we're starting to be concerned.
Shortened preseason adds pressure.
The main reason I'm worried, is because the preseason has been shortened this year. With camp starting in earnest on 9/17, that gives the team just two weeks to prepare for their first regular season game.
Missing training camp, or even part of training camp, is never ideal. As an example, look at the season Jeremy Swayman had for the Boston Bruins in 2024-25. After a contract dispute pushed his arrival back, he posted just a .892% save percentage that season, well off of his career average.
Now, obviously, Adam Fantilli is not a goaltender. However, do the Blue Jackets really want to risk having him drop off in production? No. Especially knowing what this contract number is likely to be. He will have a lot to live up to. They need him in Columbus, preparing for the season by learning the systems and gaining familiarity with his linemates.
They want to take a larger step this year, and hope to convince their star defenseman (and possibly their star first line winger) to stick around beyond the end of their current contracts. Having the inevitable centerpiece of their competitive roster miss camp could put all of that further up in the air.
All of this is to say that the next two days are massively critical for Don Waddell and the Blue Jackets. The summer of discontent has brought a lot of noise to the organization. Not having #19 on the ice Thursday is going to crank that volume up to 11.
They have to hash out their differences.
Most recently rumored, the Blue Jackets were sitting somewhere around $12.5 million, and the Fantilli camp was closer to $15 million. That's a pretty significant gap, but it's not one that cannot be overcome. There is certainly some sticker shock here, but that's what a guy like this is going to cost.
We waited 23 years for this team to draft this player. They need to get him signed...
The concerning part here is what was reported by Aaron Portzline yesterday: the two sides aren't making any progress. At this point, someone has to budge. Honestly, both sides probably need to budge. This thing should land around 5 years, $13.5 million dollars. Pretty much split the difference between the two sides.
The good news here is, we have a recent example of Waddell going down to the wire with one of his players. Jet Greaves was walking into his arbitration hearing in July before his contract was finally hashed out.
Maybe the start of preseason will act as a similar deadline for the Jackets, and this thing will get done. Either way, it's going to be a fascinating week for the organization and its fanbase. One that could go wildly in one direction or the other.
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