Adam Fantilli Has No Contract 15 Days Before Blue Jackets Training Camp

COLUMBUS – Adam Fantilli did not demand a trade last summer. He did not go public with frustration, and nothing from people close to him suggests he wants out of Columbus. That context matters when assessing what is actually happening between the 21-year-old center and the Blue Jackets organization as training camp, set to open on September 16, approaches faster than the two sides have resolved what separates them.

What separates them is term, not money.

Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell acknowledged as much to Brian Hedger of The Columbus Dispatch last week, saying there is “a little difference of opinion right now” but adding he is “confident” the deal will be done before camp. That framing is worth holding on to. A GM who expected talks to collapse would not be using the word confident. But the word matters less than the calendar. Fifteen days is not a long runway when the disagreement involves how many years a 21-year-old center commits the next chapter of his career to a franchise still figuring out how competitive it actually is.

Waddell’s language about the dispute is revealing in its own right. “The long-term contracts are becoming more and more difficult to get done,” he told Hedger. “So, obviously, we’re trying to get as much term as we possibly can.” Columbus wants length. The Blue Jackets want Fantilli’s ceiling years locked into one contract. Fantilli’s camp, by inference, wants flexibility, or at least less of it surrendered upfront than Columbus is asking for.

The market for players at Fantilli’s tier has moved fast, and not in ways that make his representatives eager to rush. Fantilli was selected third overall in 2023. His draft classmate Connor Bedard signed at $15 million annually. Leo Carlsson, the second overall pick that year, became briefly the highest-paid player in the league at $18 million AAV before Macklin Celebrini broke the record at $18.8 million per season. Fantilli’s career production sits almost precisely between Carlsson and Bedard in totals: 140 points in 213 games, versus Carlsson’s 141 in 201 and Bedard’s 203 in 219. Analysts covering the situation, including those at Bleacher Report, peg his salary expectation at roughly $13 million to $14 million annually. That part of the equation is not what Waddell called a difference of opinion.

Term is. And the term dispute carries real stakes for both sides beyond this one negotiation. Columbus is a young team without a confirmed identity. Fantilli is its clearest piece of the future, a center who posted 24 goals and 59 points last season in a full 82-game campaign, who plays at his best in the offensive zone without the defensive liabilities that often slow young forwards into their second contracts. Signing him to eight or nine years means the Blue Jackets are betting he becomes the franchise center the rebuild was designed around. Asking him to sign that long means asking him to trust the roster around him to become competitive before he hits his late prime.

There are recent data points that cut both ways. Connor Hellebuyck’s public trade demand from Winnipeg reminded the entire league that long-term commitments in markets where contention remains uncertain carry real career risk. Fantilli is not Hellebuyck, 21 and restricted rather than 33 and unrestricted, but the principle registers across the league’s young players and their representatives. Long contracts in unproven contenders are a harder sell in 2026 than they were five years ago.

What Waddell has working in his favor is structural leverage. The Blue Jackets tendered a qualifying offer, meaning Fantilli is not a free agent and cannot sign elsewhere without a trade. Columbus controls the process; Fantilli’s leverage is reputational. A training camp that opens September 16 with its centerpiece still unsigned, then drags into October, would not help the franchise project stability to the next wave of free agents or draft picks it wants to attract.

Waddell is confident he will have the deal done before the 16th. That is the stated position, and there is no public reason to disbelieve it. The calendar, though, is operating on days rather than confidence, and there are fifteen of those left.