The Columbus Blue Jackets may have to make a move after signing RFA center Adam Fantilli
The Buffalo Sabres were eerily silent over the summer, in spite of losing a few key pieces from the club that made the playoffs, won the Atlantic Division, and advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. GM Jarmo Kekalainen is currently betting on youngsters such as Konsta Helenius, Noah Ostlund, Zach Benson, Jack Quinn and Jiri Kulich to improve on their production to make up for the 44 goals lost by the departures of Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram.
The club currently has just over $4 million in available cap space entering the season, leaving Kekalainen the flexibility to jump on an evolving situation with another NHL club. The Sabres have long been connected to Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck, but the odds of their obtaining the multi-Vezina Trophy winner have decreased since the draft, mostly due to goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s trade protection kicking in.
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There has been no chatter connecting Buffalo to Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin (since they are not on his three-team trade list, and since the Sabres are loaded with players who can play up the middle), or to RFA blueliners Simon Edvinsson(DET) or Alexander Nikishin(CAR), but an opportunity for Kekalainen could present itself based on the current situation with the Columbus Blue Jackets and RFA center Adam Fantilli.
The 21-year-old is coming off second straight 50+ point season and is looking to follow the trend of youngsters making big money out of their entry-level deal. According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman on Monday’s 32 Thoughts podcast,
Fantilli is looking for a big raise on a long-term deal, which could be in the neighborhood of the $13.5 million that Anaheim paid 41-goal winger Cutter Gauthier last week.
Once Columbus gets Fantilli signed, GM Don Waddell will have to plan accordingly to manage his salary cap, which could mean moving a player out. Blue Jackets winger Kirill Marchenko is someone Kekalainen drafted as GM in Columbus and is entering the final year of his three-year bridge deal at a $3.85 million AAV. The 25-year-old has exceeded the 20-goal mark each year, with a career-high 31 goals in 2024-25.
Marchenko indicated during the summer that he would not be staying with the Blue Jackets past the remaining two years of control (he is eligible for arbitration next summer), but with him on an undervalued cap hit, Waddell has to calculate whether he can afford to re-sign the winger, if he is open to signing an extension, or his goal is to walk to unrestricted free agency in 2028.
Montreal was rumored to be a potential destination, but the signing of veteran Chris Kreider may have made that less likely. The Sabres may need to add a scorer to replace Tuch’s production if their young players cannot fill the gap, but that is a move that will most likely be made by both clubs at the halfway mark of the season, when each team knows more about their respective situations.
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