Blue Jackets Reveal Latest on Adam Fantilli Extension Talks

20-year-old Columbus Blue Jackets center Adam Fantilli had a breakthrough second season in the NHL, erupting for 31 goals and doubling his points total from his rookie year, to 54, across 82 games.

Even though he won't be arbitration-eligible for several years, he is going into the final season of his entry-level contract, and it doesn't appear that the Jackets are going to wait before locking him up on an extension.

Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell told James Murphy of rg.org that face-to-face meetings with Fantilli's agent Pat Brisson will be happening within the next couple of weeks.

When these kinds of players are up and these kinds of deals need to be made, I think you need to be in front of each other. I think you make a lot more progress than just over the phone. So that’s always been my theory, and Pat's the same way. I've done a lot of deals over the years with Pat, so we'll be fine and sit down face-to-face and get this done. As we get closer to training camp, I think we’ll be much further ahead.

Waddell credits Sean Monahan playing the first-line center role at the beginning of the season with taking some weight off the shoulders of Fantilli, allowing him to slide into a lower-pressure 2C role, and really gain his confidence as the season went along.

"I think having that opportunity to watch Sean be there and him in that 2C provided him the opportunity to, when he got the chance, jump right into that 1C role and never miss a beat," Waddell said of Fantilli.

The 6'2, 200-pounder even started to play a bit more of a physical game last season, handing out 113 hits, though more focus on his defensive game is still to come.

Fantilli was the third overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft by the Blue Jackets, and it sounds like he'll soon be living up to that pedigree with a hefty new extension.