Adam Proteau discusses the 2028 World Cup of Hockey and a potential offer sheet for Columbus Blue Jackets star Adam Fantilli
The NHL has a tremendous opportunity in regards to the 2028 World Cup of Hockey.
The tournament will have eight teams, and there are essentially seven nations that will be locks: Canada, the United States, Czechia, Finland, Sweden, Germany and Slovakia. That leaves one spot open for an eighth team.
Here's where the NHL's opportunity comes in. If Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine continues unabated through the next year, just think what a message the league would send to the world if, rather than trying to rationalize shoehorning in a Russian team, they instead put the Ukrainian national team into the tournament.
Think of how uplifting it would be for millions of Ukrainians to see their countrymen playing in a high-profile setting. To say it would be stirring would be a massive understatement. You can argue Ukraine doesn't have enough NHL-caliber talent to truly compete against the powerhouse countries at the World Cup, but that's missing the point.
The point is the gesture itself. The league would instantly add a potential Cinderella story, and imagine how inspirational it would be for a team of Ukrainian athletes if they managed to pull off a win against one of those powerhouse teams.
From this writer's perspective, a Team Ukraine at the 2028 World Cup of Hockey feels like a home-run move by the NHL and NHLPA. Hockey fans will always watch a best-on-best tournament, but by putting in Ukraine, the world would tune in.
The Columbus Blue Jackets' standoff with star center and RFA Adam Fantilli has no apparent end in sight, and that is opening up a window for another team to take advantage of the situation by tendering an offer sheet to poach him from the Blue Jackets.
And that team, more than any other team, should be the Detroit Red Wings.
Tossing a boatload of money at Fantilli would serve many purposes for the Red Wings. Firstly, they'd be adding a cornerstone player, and someone who could take the place of former captain Dylan Larkin once interim GM Shawn Horcoff trades him. And if Columbus matches the offer sheet, so be it.
Detroit currently has $21.3 million in cap space, and they've got all the draft picks they'd need to send the Blue Jackets' way as compensation for Fantilli. The Red Wings need to be bold, and they need to be aggressive.
They'd be doing both those things by offer-sheeting Fantilli, and they'd be hurting an Eastern Conference rival in the process. And from the perspective of Fantilli, an Ontario native, he'd be playing much closer to home.
Thus, an offer sheet for Fantilli makes too much sense to be ignored. The Blue Jackets seemingly can't get a deal done, but the Red Wings have the potential to. If Horcoff wants to remove the 'interim' tag off his job title, this kind of move would be a huge step in the right direction.
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