Three NHL Offer Sheet Candidates For Blue Jackets' Adam Fantilli

It has not been a pleasant summer for the Columbus Blue Jackets. The reason is that few people seem excited about playing there.

While Zach Werenski has at least somewhat re-committed to the team, Kirill Marchenko is still the subject of trade rumors, and most vexing: restricted free agent Adam Fantilli remains unsigned.

As we saw this July, having a brand-name RFA who is due a big contract is a huge risk for any NHL team, as the Philadelphia Flyers shocked the hockey world with a monster $18 million AAV offer sheet to Leo Carlsson. The Blue Jackets run a similar risk to the Anaheim Ducks. The longer Fantilli remains unsigned, the higher the risk that a team sends him an offer sheet and he agrees to it.

And so, the longer this stretches on, the more fans' minds may start to wonder about where Fantilli might end up. The bad news for the Blue Jackets is that there are a lot of options: 24 teams have the draft picks to offer Fantilli an offer sheet at max compensation (four picks over the next five years). But of course, not all of them have the cap space to accommodate what would likely be an $18-million cap hit.

With that in mind, who might target Fantilli via an offer sheet or use the threat of an offer sheet to force a trade?

The Detroit Red Wings have a pretty obvious problem of their own: Dylan Larkin, who has a full no-move clause, seemingly does not want to play there. They also have nearly $19.6 million in cap space. In theory, they could offer-sheet Fantilli, who played his NCAA career at the University of Michigan, and then feel a lot more comfortable about trading Larkin for futures to replace the picks they just lost.

Now, would Detroit, even with Fantilli in and Larkin out, be giving up multiple top picks in that deal and likely only receive back mid-to-late first-round picks and prospects? Probably, yes. But in their mind, that might be better than massively losing a Larkin trade.

If an offer sheet fails, Detroit and Columbus could loop in a third team (like the Minnesota Wild) to make the talent moves and the money work better for everyone, since Larkin prefers to win now.

The Seattle Kraken already threw major money at Jason Robertson in a trade proposal this summer and did so during the 2025-26 campaign with Artemi Panarin. They both turned them down. There were also rumors that they'd be interested in offer-sheeting someone because they need to make a big splash.

This is another team that probably shouldn't be giving up four first-round picks, but with the threat of an NBA expansion team looming, their local relevance as a franchise might be on the line.

An $18-million offer sheet would edge them right up against the salary cap limit, but the team might also have a trade solution to work on. The Kraken seemingly want to move on from Shane Wright. Would Wright-plus-picks-and-prospects be more attractive for Columbus than four firsts?

The Calgary Flames don't have the cap space to blow Fantilli out of the water right now, but they do have some very movable guys who are at least a little overpaid, and it's tough to imagine they think they can be competitive this season.

But they've also said they want to at least be in the playoff conversation when their new rink opens in fall 2027. That's where Fantilli comes in. Right now, the Flames' top center in terms of ice time last season was Mikael Backlund, who wasn't close to being a No. 1 center at his peak, and now he's 36. Fantilli would fit right in, age-wise, with what they're trying to build.

They likely don't have the war chest to entice the Blue Jackets into a trade. All of their best prospects are guys they would want to keep, and all their semi-expensive veterans don't really help Columbus get competitive anytime soon.

All of this, of course, comes with the caveat that Columbus would almost certainly move heaven and earth to make the money work for Fantilli, so none of the above amounts to much for them. Much like Anaheim, they would easily and happily match nearly any offer sheet, while taking the full week to announce their decision.

If Fantilli is unhappy in Columbus — and we have no indication one way or the other — he might prefer a short-term move, but ultimately he doesn't have as much power as we'd like to think.

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