The last two dominoes ahead of Adam Fantilli have fallen. With Chicago signing Connor Bedard to a five-year, $75 million extension and Anaheim having matched Leo Carlsson’s offer sheet, Pro Hockey Rumors’ Brian La Rose wrote Sunday that the restricted-free-agent center market now shifts to the Blue Jackets‘ 21-year-old — whose talks with Columbus general manager Don Waddell were described as ongoing in good faith as of last week.
The Bedard deal is the comparable that matters, because it was negotiated rather than forced. Carlsson’s $18 million average annual value came off an offer sheet Anaheim had to match; Bedard’s $15 million a year is what a franchise center and his club agreed to on their own — and notably, the five-year term buys Chicago just one year of team control beyond restricted free agency, with no unrestricted years included. Bedard’s agent Don Meehan told Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times the team wanted the continuity of a medium-term deal rather than a short bridge.
Fantilli’s production sits a tier below those two: 24 goals and 59 points in 81 games last season, his best year yet after going third overall in 2023, one pick behind Carlsson. A fair contract lands under Bedard’s number. The harder question for Columbus is the shape — whether Fantilli’s camp, led by Pat Brisson, follows the Bedard template of a shorter term that reaches free agency in his prime, or whether Waddell can buy unrestricted years the way most clubs prefer with a young No. 1 center.
Waddell has already committed publicly to matching any offer sheet, per Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch, and PuckPedia shows Columbus with more than $23 million in cap space. Some of that is spoken for this week: Jet Greaves and Cole Sillinger have arbitration hearings scheduled for July 23 and 27 if settlements don’t come first. Fantilli did not file for arbitration, which means the offer-sheet window Waddell keeps warning about stays open until he signs.
On the fantasy side, none of this changes Fantilli’s role — he is Columbus’s No. 1 center and a fixture on the top power play whenever he signs. For dynasty managers the contract is the story: a long-term deal would lock a 21-year-old coming off 59 points into cornerstone usage for the rest of the decade, while a Bedard-style medium term would put this same drama back on the calendar before his age-26 season.
