Adam Fantilli admits he wasn’t the easiest person to be around last winter and spring.
He was living out his dream as an NHL rookie – and having plenty of success – all the way until late January, when a freak accident ended his season. Fantilli suffered a skate cut when a Seattle player accidentally caught the back of his leg, and for the first time ever as a hockey player, the Blue Jackets center was on the shelf for an extended period of time as the laceration healed.
“A lot of people were dealing with me being maybe a little bit irritable, missing being on the ice, missing being around the guys,” he said during training camp this fall. “I want to say thank you to all of them and I’m sorry for what they had to deal with. I definitely wanted to pull my hair out.”
Fast-forward a few months from those comments and there’s no discontent coming from Fantilli. The 20-year-old has played in every game so far this year, and there’s no one more excited for him to be back on the ice than Fantilli himself.
“Every single game, I thank God for letting me come back and do what I love,” Fantilli said. “Coming back and playing, it makes you appreciate it a lot more. It makes you want to have a lot more fun doing it.”
Since he’s been back, the results have been mixed so far on the score sheet, but that's also led to an opportunity for growth.
In 18 games this season, the 2023 first-round draft pick has three goals and six assists for nine points, hurt in part by a shooting percentage of 7.3 that would suggest he’s been a bit snakebitten. His average ice time per game (16:52) and faceoff percentage (45.5) are both up from a season ago, and head coach Dean Evason said he has already gained respect for Fantilli’s work ethic and attention to detail.
“He wants to be an all-around player,” Evason said. “He wants to be taught. He needs to continually work at the other end of the ice because he’s gifted on the offensive end, but is he committed? Yeah. Is he getting better? Yeah. For sure.”
Given his druthers, Fantilli would rather have had more impact on the score sheet, but he also displays a maturity beyond his years when it comes to handling it. There hasn’t been any visible frustration from the young center, who has been encouraged by how well his overall game is developing.
“It’s tough when you put in a good effort and you don’t have anything to show for it,” Fantilli said. “But that’s hockey. The other team gets paid, too, to stop you. You just have to keep going. There are a lot of guys in this room that have that understanding. As a young guy, you want to be able to produce and sometimes you can’t. Sometimes you try and it just doesn’t go, and you have to be OK with that.”
There are some signs things are coming around, including last night’s game in Boston where Fantilli had an assist and probably could have had a second. He didn’t get a helper on Mathieu Olivier’s first-period goal, but he did play an integral part in the play by keeping it alive at center ice, touching up to avoid being offside and then providing a passing outlet that distracted the defense and allowed Olivier to get to the net and score.
Later in the opening period, Fantilli sent a beautiful cross-ice saucer pass over the stick of a Bruins defender to the oncoming Zach Werenski, whose ensuing shot deflected off James van Riemsdyk and went into the net for the Jackets’ third goal.
