Adam Fantilli is Laying the Foundation
Adam Fantilli is Laying the Foundation
In only seven games, Adam Fantilli has already shown the Columbus Blue Jackets what they have been missing for years.
The Stats
Through 7 games at 5-on-5, according to NaturalStatTrick.com, Adam Fantilli has 1.86 ixG, good for 23rd in the league. He’s also sporting a 52.38 CF% and a 57.73 xGF%, good for 6th and 2nd on the team respectively.
Here, we can see that with Fantilli on the ice, the Blue Jackets are shooting much more from dangerous areas. Without him, the offense looks pretty desperate. Defensively, he’s helped to create quite an ocean up top. That could have something to do with his most common partner, Alexandre Texier, who is a relentless and effective puck attacker but Fantilli is no slouch in relentlessness either.
The Theory
It’s safe to say that he is very much looking the part of his high-draft and Hobey Baker winning pedigree, but so far he’s been so much more than that. His presence in the lineup brings a skillset to center-ice that doesn’t exist anywhere else on the roster and hasn’t maybe ever outside of PL Dubois’ Toronto bubble series.
I’ve been writing a lot lately about some of the ideas underlying Pascal Vincent’s systems by way of Darryl Belfry’s book Belfry Offense. Specifically, I’ve covered a lot of the systems underlying the nature of possession hockey and how those systems can liberate creative and dangerous offense.
If you want the quickest summary, take some looks here.
If you have a bit more time, or are a better visual learner as well, definitely check out this excellent conversation on the Hockey PDOcast between Dimitri Filipovic and Darryl Belfry. Here, they breakdown Mikko Rantanen’s game but also how the Avalanche, and Nathan MacKinnon, have created a new way of playing that drives their success.
I’ll break down some select quotes from this podcast as they relate to some of the very exciting things Fantilli is already doing, but more on that later.
Adam Fantilli marries his hockey sense, puck reception and handling abilites, skating and compete to drive the neutral zone, attack the interior and win the possession battle. He’s already taking good tracking routes to disrupt zone exits, skating hard off the puck to get into support positions and creating and playing through speed differentials.
The attributes he has brought so far in this short season are necessary for the continued healthy growth of this club, especially insofar as enabling his active defensemen.
The Tape
While Pascal Vincent is absolutely right in saying that forward assignments in his system don’t matter too much, it would still be incorrect to think that the Columbus Blue Jackets are full of quality centers. In this case, there are specific responsibilities that the Blue Jackets forwards, formerly referred to as centers, could not perform with regularity at the NHL level.
Transition Support
Adam Fantilli has a few skills and habits he layers to help his team break the puck out of their zone. The first, is his remarkable ability to receive and handle pucks in motion.
Notice in this clip how corrals the puck with his feet, gets in motion quickly and senses the space made available by Texier’s body positioning in the slot. He finds #96 (Jack Roslovic), who has time and space ahead of him, before Minnesota’s #23 (Marco Rossi) can close the gap.
In this clip, Fantilli receives a small area pass in the middle of the ice and has little time to create motion before being confronted by Anaheim #19 (Troy Terry). Still, he uses his posture to shield the puck so he can make a play. While this exit isn’t controlled, he puts the pass to space in a play to Texier’s puck-hound strengths. Later down the line, they establish possession in the offensive zone and go to work.
Here, Fantilli isn’t the low forward in the defensive triangle but still manages to improve the conditions of the breakout. Still, he receives a pass and pivots in one motion all while maintaining speed. After, a full transition with control followed by a pass and rebound chance.
This breakout is perhaps a better showcase of some of Fantilli’s more intriguing skills and habits. He has a remarkable spatial intelligence and habitually works to create advantages for his team.
As the forward at the net front, he uses his already established position to set a “pick” that buys CBJ#78 (Damon Severson) time to retrieve and control the puck. That pick also buys Fantilli space to receive the puck, in a low-support breakout position, where he makes a quick backhand continuation to CBJ#8 (Zach Werenski) who is taking the middle of the ice at speed.
Next are a few clips where Fantilli utilizes his low-support position to build speed. Here he establishes his availability to CBJ#78 who finds an open CBJ#96 who then bumps a pass to Fantilli who has had time for a few crossovers prior to reception and continues to use them to build speed through the neutral zone.
His delay move works here because of his already established speed. The pass is to a high danger area, though doesn’t quite connect.
Though this isn’t the same breakout play, Fantilli still finds space underneath the rush where he creates a speed differential in the neutral zone once again. Because he’s moving at a good pace when he receives the puck, he’s able to attack the heels of the neutral zone defenders and create a fantastic rush chance.
In this clip, Adam Fantilli once again arrives in a low support position and starts building speed with crossovers below the dots in the d zone. The puck goes up the wall where CBJ #29 tries to make a continuation play. Then, because of Fantilli’s created speed, he’s able to pick up the semi-loose puck before the opposition defender can disrupt the play.
None of these skills and habits are particularly earth-shattering, but they should serve as a breath of fresh air for a club whose center-spine has consisted of mostly converted wingers for the past few years.
Speed Differential
Now, I’d like to turn our attention back to the Mikko Rantanen breakdown for a moment. Darryl Belfry was often worried about Rantanen’s pace but later came to appreciate it for a different reason. It wasn’t that Rantanen wasn’t a fast skater, it was just that he wasn’t as fast as MacKinnon.
“It’s less about how fast you can skate and more about how well you can play inside a differential.”
MacKinnon and Rantanen’s special skill combination off-the-rush was having the sense and presence of mind to offer completely different speed combination threats to the rush defenders.
“Defenseman coming to a slow or a stop, now Rantanen comes in as a second wave and is flying.”
When a center is being diligent about maintaining low-support positions, they won’t always be able to be spearhead the rush. Furthermore, talented stretch passing defenseman will also move the puck up-ice much faster than even MacKinnon could skate.
As such, the ability to create a differential and arrive as a second-wave at pace is a display of sophisticated rush patterns. Keep that in mind as you watch the next clip.
Here, Zach Werenski finds Jack Roslovic up the ice, who delays for a rampaging Adam Fantilli. Take a careful look at the speed of the Minnesota defense who is all responding to Roslovic’s play. Then, Adam Fantilli picks up a slip pass from Roslovic and rings a high danger shot off the post.
Both of these players combined for an excellent play across speed differentials and this technique, especially with a player like Alexander Texier on the line, could be instrumental in Fantilli’s line finding success.
Exit Kill
The last bit is probably the technique most important going forward for the Blue Jackets. I’ve laid out a lot of the underlying systems for generating Exit Kills through Darryl Belfry’s research. He talks about it often in the breakdown of Mikko Rantanen as well.
“MacKinnon years ago reinvented the high 3 on 2. What he would do is position himself stationary at the point between the two D.”
With this reinvention, Colorado was able to kill exits with remarkable efficiency on the way to a Stanley Cup win in 2022.
“Watch the energy the high forward in the 3 on 2 would have to kill the exit from the middle of the ice".
I’d encourage you to do the same in the upcoming clip.
First, Fantilli does an excellent job establishing the exact 3 on 2 that Belfry describes.
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The Blue Jackets’ unit of 11-92-42-8-78 does an absolutely excellent job establishing a great offensive posture. Texier and Roslovic work to exchange and create matchup difficulties across “the Highway”.
Unfortunately, Werenski opts for a weak point-shot, though this does give us the chance to display the aforementioned “energy to kill the exit” from Adam Fantilli. This ability to extend plays and win recoveries will be vital for the Blue Jackets if they want to win hockey games when it counts.
It’s especially important for CBJ’s active defensemen. When talking about Devon Toews’ role in Colorado’s top unit, Belfry said the following:
“His ability to engage is in large part because of the way he is insulated by the group of forwards that’s out there. He already knows he is protected”
If Fantilli can continue to play with this degree of positional discipline and support, and bring it to CBJ’s other forwards, it could have a run on effect throughout the team.
“It’s 1+1=6, it’s a multiplying effect on the player’s games.”
Wrap Up
There are some more habits and connections to be drawn from Fantilli and the new, modern offence, but these connections and clips were too good to wait.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all perfect from Fantilli. He’s still only 19 years old. He still overcommits in search of offense, especially on breakouts, or tries to do too much through neutral zone carrying. His playmaking hasn’t yet yielded fruit though he’s always going to be a dangerous shooter first.
Still, an xGF% rivaling Johnny Gaudreau in your first 7 NHL games is quite the start.
A marvelous foundation to build on if I do say so myself.