If you have read my last Fantilli article you will know that I am personally not as high on Fantilli as others are and would prefer to sign Marchenko long term than Fantilli. If you have not, you can check it out to see my reasons why. However, with that in mind, I had some fun this Sunday and put together a trade that I would do for Fantilli if i were in the shoes of Waddell for Columbus that I think makes sense. Tell me what you think.

As I said you can read my previous article for a deeper analysis but in a nutshell Fantill's hockey I.Q. away from the puck is not at a level that I would want to toss 14 million for 8 at and apparently, he wants more than that. Chicago's coach Blashill just publicly came out and stated that he had not seen an analytics model that accurately articulates a player on ice defensive ability.. my guess is Chicago does not have one so they should be all over Fantilli who is eye test eye candy.

Nazar does not have the shot that Fantilli has for sure and his overall skill set is not to the level of Fantilli offensively, but he has shown to be much better away from the puck and at under half the price allowing Columbus to sign Marchenko I would take it. Nazar's defensive analytics do have to looked on the context that Chicago played from behind a lot the last 3 years and high risk offensive play was the order of the day a lot because of it. That is one thing defensive models have not caught up to yet,

Teravainen is on the last year of his contact and Chicago has several young players coming up that will be need that spot open soon. At 32-year-old I would say that he is not in the Hawks future plans. This could very well be a rental for Columbus as well, but the door would be open for him to resign for sure. Chicago would have to free up cap space to sign Fantilli in this deal and probably would be open to moving a player that is not likely to be in their future plans. With Columbus seemingly in a very motivated spot to make the playoffs, someone that can play with defensive awareness in all three zones as well as Teuvo can and still produce offence I am sure would be a welcome addition. If things go south for the Jackets they can recoup some value for Teravainen at the trade deadline I am sure.

With Byram being added in off season there is a good chance that Kaiser could lose his spot in the top 4 with Chicago. At the moment Chicago is experimenting with putting Bowen Byram on the right side which pushes either Rinzel or Levshunov down to 3rd pair. Especially in the case of Rinzel I can not see this lasting. Rinzel has top pair written all over him and from what I saw of Byram in Buffalo he is much more effective on the left side. In Columbus Wyatt may also play a 3rd pair role as well but there are not many players that are pushing for that spot in Columbus, and he would be in a pretty secure spot for a long term deal at the end of the year. Kaiser would be a banging third pair guy for the Jackets and would strengthen what is actually already and underrated D core. 

I would also consider Oliver Moore instead of Kaiser who is trending towards an exceptional 3C or possibly just Chicago 1st round pick next year. There are ways that the trade could be played with and I am sure I will get opinions about it in the comments. If you are enjoying this fine programming give me a follow to catch other musings in the future 

this is a video we did last night about Fantilli