It’s a long week ahead of the Flyers, as they await the most important decision in recent team history, with Anaheim on the clock to match their offer sheet on Leo Carlsson. Time is at a standstill. None of Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, or even Claude Giroux have been able to work out a deal with the Flyers as $18 million annually is stuck in limbo until Friday afternoon at the latest. However, that doesn’t mean they haven’t been discussing a Plan B should things go back to normal.
Columbus’s Adam Fantilli could be targeted
Aaron Portzline, a Columbus Blue Jackets writer for The Athletic, suggested on Monday that the Flyers could be poking around another young star center.
It's been surmised if #LetsGoFlyers whiff on #FlyTogether Carlsson's offer sheet, they could turn sights on another 21YO RFA center, #CBJ Adam Fantilli.
— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) July 6, 2026
Talk about awkward.
Cam Briere, son of Flyers GM Danny Briere, is on CBJ staff as video coach, works closely w Rick Bowness.
They’ve likely had some semblance of a conversation regarding Fantilli given how publicly interested they were in Columbus’s Zach Werenski before that market died down. The connection with Danny Briere’s son, Cam, is a funny coincidence that hopefully won’t lead to any tampering investigations.
Fantilli was drafted one pick after Leo Carlsson in 2023. As he’s also only played three seasons, he’s not eligible for arbitration, and so is ineligible to file to be immune from the offer sheet like Zegras and Drysdale. Their career numbers to this point are strikingly similar.
| Goals | Assists | Points | Games Played | |
| Leo Carlsson | 61 | 80 | 141 | 201 |
| Adam Fantilli | 67 | 73 | 140 | 213 |
Per NaturalStatTrick, Fantilli raised his 5v5 Expected Goals For percentage to almost 62 percent this season — a big increase from 45.6 percent the previous year, in which he scored 31 goals. He’s on an upward trajectory as much as anyone. Both are left-handed shots. Both are top-line centers on the way up. Both players are the size the Flyers are looking for with each standing well over 6 feet and 200 pounds. So, why did the Flyers choose Carlsson?
Columbus is even more likely to match
Aside from the fact that it’s very funny to pressure Pat Verbeek and the Ducks, Carlsson just made a lot more realistic sense as a player that can be pried away from his club. The Ducks have a lot of young talent due for big raises at about the same time, with Cutter Gauthier and third overall pick Beckett Sennecke looking like the next ones in line. It’s a good problem to have from a team-building perspective, but Briere has still thrown a very expensive wrench into their budget.
They’re also getting hammered by the open market on their own RFAs. Per Elliotte Friedman’s 32 Thoughts podcast, Anaheim was hoping to re-sign Pavel Mintyukov somewhere in the $3.3 million range (which is, honestly, an insulting low-ball) similar to Olen Zellweger. They were cornered into giving over twice that, eventually agreeing to $7.2 million annually for the defenseman after another team was circling with their own offer sheet. It was a good time to strike at the Ducks, who can make everything work, but they have to start moving some furniture soon to get it done.
Columbus, on the other hand, doesn’t have much deterrent. Fantilli is their future franchise player — not that Carlsson isn’t for Anaheim, but different circumstances — and there’s not much in the way of instantly matching any deal that comes through. Per PuckPedia, Columbus has over $21 million in cap space this summer with no real expensive moves to be made. Their highest paid forward makes just over $6 million. The Blue Jackets can’t really afford to let their best talent leave for a handful of late first round picks, and as good as Kirill Marchenko is, they don’t have a Cutter Gauthier and an incoming top-three pick to re-sign in the next year.
Columbus is teetering on full-fledged tear-down with the rumors around Werenski’s move and their apparent willingness to trade Marchenko. Unless Fantilli tells them he wants out, he’s probably tethered to the arena in Columbus for the foreseeable future.
Is it worth trying a similar offer sheet anyway?
The way things have gone for the Blue Jackets, Briere could probably just have Fantilli in a trade in a couple of years. That doesn’t help the Flyers now, of course, and who knows what he’ll cost in the way of roster players and our own talent, but it probably won’t be four first round picks and $90 million. The Jackets have some weird contracts on their books– Charlie Coyle until age 40, Ivan Provorov has a full no-trade until 2030 at $8.5 million– and it could get interesting over the next half-decade there.
With Werenski on his way out, and some questionable deals around him, Briere should keep an eye on Fantilli, but not at the same price as Carlsson. It doesn’t feel like the Jackets will be out-bid by a similar deal, unlike with the notorious penny-pinching going on in Anaheim. If they’re looking to apply some more pressure to Columbus’s Don Waddell, it’s the right move and it can’t hurt to try, but Fantilli could be on a similar trajectory to Jack Eichel’s departure from Buffalo.
