A potential Adam Fantilli offer sheet is at least on the radar now, and the timing is what makes this worth watching.
The Columbus Blue Jackets still haven’t settled Fantilli’s next deal, and with Jet Greaves in ongoing arbitration and Cole Sillinger set to follow, insider David Pagnotta says some teams are starting to wonder whether there’s a window to make a move. Fantilli, the 2023 third-overall pick, is the top offer sheet-eligible player left out there, and that alone has put him on the league’s radar.
Pagnotta explained the cap math this way:
“If we’re seeing Sillinger in the 4 to 5 range and Greaves in the 5 to 6 range, all of a sudden you’re looking at around $10 million, $11 million for those guys, and that’s dropping their cap space down to the 13 mark. The reason why I’m bringing that up is, are other teams that are lurking going to look at this situation and go, they don’t have a deal yet, Fantilli and the Blue Jackets, they’ve got other business to attend to, and one of them being pressing given the arb situation with Greaves.
There are teams looking at this situation going, maybe this is an opportunity to pounce here with respect to the whole offer sheet business. Now, I didn’t anticipate that a few weeks ago, but it is something that some teams are at least considering now,”
Fantilli is 21 and just finished the three-year, $2.85 million entry-level contract he signed after being drafted in 2023. Last season, he delivered a career-best 59 points, scoring 24 goals and adding 35 assists in 82 games.
There are teams with enough room to make this kind of play, too. Detroit, Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh all currently have more than $13 million in cap space.
Seattle and Philadelphia are the two clubs that stand out most as possible aggressors, especially after both have already taken big swings this offseason that didn’t end up landing. Still, Fantilli would have to be willing to sign the offer sheet for any of this to matter, and the longer his situation stays unresolved, the more that possibility seems to hang around.
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The bigger issue is what kind of price tag comes with that commitment, because any deal in Fantillis range would reset the internal standard for Columbus. It would also underline how aggressively the organization is moving to build around him as a franchise centerpiece, even as the club still has to navigate the fine print of how far it wants to go to keep that plan intact. [Read more 🡒]
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The timing matters, too, because the Blue Jackets have spent plenty of recent seasons sorting out who can be trusted in net when the games start to matter. Greaves has had to earn every bit of this opportunity, and now the organization is making a clear statement that it wants to see what he can do with a real runway. There is still work ahead before anything is settled on the ice, but Columbus has made its position on Greaves unmistakable. [Read more 🡒]
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The problem is that Malatesta still looks like a player with more questions than answers. He brings a physical element and enough scoring ability to matter, but his consistency and decision-making remain works in progress, and his 2024-25 season in Cleveland was slowed by an upper-body injury and a sophomore slump. Even with a new deal in hand, his path back to the NHL is not exactly clear, which leaves Columbus waiting to see whether he becomes a depth piece, a spark plug or something else entirely. [Read more 🡒]