Emptying the 2023 Blue Jackets Draft & Free Agency Notebook

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What a week it has been for the Columbus Blue Jackets. From wondering how the draft would play out to becoming one of the biggest winners of the draft according to most draft experts, they truly had a week they’ll never forget.

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While the offseason certainly isn’t over for the Blue Jackets with free agency actively ongoing, it was expected that they wouldn’t be too active in the early going. That came to fruition when the team didn’t sign anyone on Saturday.

Now is the perfect time to empty my notebook for the last time this season. I was in Nashville from Sunday-Friday and then in Columbus on Saturday for the Mike Babcock announcement. Both Adam Fantilli and GM Jarmo Kekalainen addressed the media on Saturday as well after Fantilli signed his entry-level contract.

Similar to what my emptying the NHL Combine notebook is, this will be a collections of tidbits, thoughts and facts from the week that was in Nashville and then afterwards in Columbus. There will be some rumblings and rumors I had heard. There will be some quotes and moments from the NHL Awards and the NHL Draft. This will put a bow on everything that we have witnessed in the last week.

Emptying the Notebook

  1. Let’s start with the NHL Awards. As a member of the media in attendance, we were in a separate media area and not where the ceremony was taking place. We watched on monitors. Then when an award winner was ready, they were brought to the media area.
  2. The first to come out was Steven Stamkos. He was asked about the decision by Gary Bettman to eliminate specialty warmup jerseys as there were “a distraction.” Stamkos called it disappointing citing the story is on the one player who didn’t wear the jersey and not the 98-99% who did. Connor McDavid similarly was disappointed in the decision.
  3. Speaking of McDavid, the question on everyone’s mind was would he be a unanimous winner of the Hart Trophy. He got every first-place vote but one. That one vote went to David Pastrnak. On that ballot, McDavid was fifth. This set Twitter ablaze as you can imagine.
  4. I have zero issue with the situation. Where I have a problem is when fans attack other media members and even go as far as threatening them in some way. That is completely uncalled for at all times. Feel free to respectfully disagree with someone’s ballot. But don’t threaten them. Some people don’t realize how far they go in the heat of a moment.
  5. As for the fifth place vote, I don’t have an issue with it either. The definition of the Hart is not the highest scorer. It’s who is deemed most valuable to their team. In that voter’s mind, he felt Pastrnak was the most valuable to his team. Not everyone will agree with it and that’s ok. My hope is that we can foster more healthy discussions on topics without the need to attack someone just because they disagree with your take.
  6. The best moment of the night though came when McDavid was presented the Hart trophy by the family of Ben Stelter. They flew in and surprised McDavid. You could tell he didn’t expect it. They embraced on stage. Did someone cut onions in here?
  1. All-in-all, the NHL Awards show was ok. It certainly had its moments. Frank Seravalli and the hot chicken. Paul Bissionette and his conversation with McDavid. Reaction on the show seemed mixed with some feeling it had awkward moments. I had no issue with anything. Dierks Bentley, the host of the NHL Awards, did a fine job emceeing the event. This was one of the rare occurrences in which the Awards and Draft were held in the same city.
  2. The buzz around Nashville was the 2024 NHL Draft will be held in Las Vegas. I can tell you it’s trending that way. If they’re able to tie up some loose ends, it will become a reality. And you thought all the praise for Tootsie’s was wild? Wait until NHL teams spend a week or more in Las Vegas.
  3. Let’s jump to Tuesday. There was a huge moment when the NHL announced their new Player Inclusion Coalition. Months of talking about the next steps came to fruition. I got to talk to Ryan Reaves about it and it’s importance. You can read that piece here.
  4. I’m not going to lie. I had goosebumps when this was announced. We’ve all been waiting for tangible evidence of advancement in inclusion and making sure everyone felt welcomed. Don’t get me wrong. There is a long way to go. But to have a coalition in place, it’s a start. Given who all is part of the coalition (you can see that in my Reaves piece) I’m excited to see where they go.
  5. Then there is Julie Chu. Like many, she had travel issues getting to Nashville. What does she do? She instead flies to Huntsville, AL and then makes the two-hour drive from there to be at the Inclusion Coalition Announcement. That’s dedication.
  6. Now let’s talk about my interaction with agent Dan Milstein. It started as a hey, how are you? It ended with a trade taking place. That’s the life of an NHL agent. One phone call changes everything. When he got off the phone, he wasn’t willing to share the details. But he did say, “someone was moved, but I’m not telling you who.” It turned out to be his client Yegor Sharangovich being traded to the Calgary Flames for Tyler Toffoli. Milstein wasn’t lying, although during draft week, anything was possible.
  7. Big congrats to Tennessee State University for launching men’s hockey at the school. It was an endeavor that was over two and a half years in the making. They will be a club team upcoming and hope to be in Division 1 or 2 by 2026-27. It was a tremendous day for hockey in the area and hopefully the start of something big moving forward. They hope to launch women’s hockey in the future as well.
  8. Draft night. As soon as I got to Bridgestone Arena and in my seat, the immediate buzz was that Anaheim was targeting Leo Carlsson second overall. You always have to be careful with anything like that. But when that same feeling was expressed by multiple folks, I knew it was real. As it turned out, it played out that way. The Blue Jackets got their opening to draft Fantilli. The reaction of the fans said everything you need to know about how big a moment this was. Fantilli admitted to seeing this clip.
  1. Don’t underestimate the power of what the Fantilli pick means to the Blue Jackets. He wanted to go there. He’s happy. He’s with his best friend Gavin Brindley. He got to partake in the coin toss with the Columbus Crew. He had a sign made on an electronic billboard welcoming him to Columbus. Fans aren’t used to seeing this play out. Now you can understand why all the cheering in the reaction video.
  2. The Blue Jackets ensured Tyler Peddle got his draft moment. These are the stories that make the NHL Draft everything. He waited at Bridgestone Arena both days and then was picked 224 after the Blue Jackets made a trade with the Golden Knights. Incredible.
  3. Where were all the trades? Yes, there were 12 trades on Thursday but the big stuff didn’t happen as expected. The flat cap had a major effect on this. Trades now have to have some creativity to them such as dollar for dollar. But to have zero trades on Wednesday was shocking. Even Kekalainen hadn’t seen anything like that in his time.
  4. Kekalainen said in Nashville he was confident Fantilli was ready for the NHL. But there would be a meeting to determine next steps. On Saturday, Fantilli signed his entry-level contract.
  5. Babcock said all the right things on Saturday. Time will tell how it will play out.

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  1. Here’s Kekalainen on the decision to sign Fantilli: “It was a brief discussion. I think we both felt that he was ready to take the next step, the next challenge. We were very clear on that. In the conversation with him, we watched him all year on different levels in college, in the world juniors, men’s world championships, playing against mostly NHL players. He’s a big man, as you can see. He’s physically ready. He’s mentally ready to take the next step and the next challenge. And that was our position. And he agreed. The entry level contracts are not rocket science, so that didn’t take very long. And there’s plenty of comparables there where he was drafted and we agreed on it very quickly and got it signed today.
  2. Here’s Fantilli on signing with the Blue Jackets: “We were pretty discussing it pretty quick and I had a pretty good feeling and then he had a pretty good feeling as well. And then going through the interview process of the Combine and everything that way, I thought we had a really good relationship there and hopefully we continue to develop that. But I think I was ready, just trying to feel ready and myself feeling ready and I thought we were both confident. So it’s kind of what led to the decision.”
  3. Here’s Fantilli on his performance at the World Championships and if it gave him confidence to play in the NHL next season: “At the beginning of the tournament I was kind of feeling out our systems, feeling out being in the locker room and learning how to fit with those types of guys. And I think towards the end of the system, once I became confident in our system and once I became confident and playing the defensive side of it, I was able to be a bit more creative offensively and take maybe a couple more chances that way. Cause I knew the system a bit better, I knew how to recover a bit better and I thought that helped me play a lot better. So towards the end of that tournament, I felt more and more ready and obviously the NHL is the best league in the world and I don’t know how it’s gonna compare yet cause I don’t have any games played, but that did give me a pretty good sense of playing around and being with guys like that.”
Columbus Blue Jackets, NHL, Adam Fantilli
Adam Fantilli signed his ELC on Saturday with his father at his side. (Photo credit: Mark Scheig/The Hockey Writers)
  1. Free agency as expected started slowly for the Blue Jackets. With Fantilli in the fold, that’s another forward option and one less potentially for someone else. Here’s Kekalainen. “Well, it’s a slow start maybe in this room, but we’ve been fast at it the whole day with everything that we’re working on. And sometimes, like I say, there’s 31 other teams competing and the opportunities they present may be better than what we have. We’re not in a rush to do something just to do something. It has to be the perfect fit first, with the perfect term and the dollars that fit under the cap and into our plan. So if we find that piece that makes us better, we’ll do it. But if we don’t, then we’ll continue with the group that we have right now. And I think we’ve gotten a lot better, like I said, just from getting healthy and adding to defensemen and now adding Adam into the mix. So I have full confidence that we will be a lot better going into next year with the new head coach.”
  2. Kekalainen reiterated they are not in a rush to complete trades. They seem content to enter training camp as is with the possibility of a move or two should there be a true logjam. Given the injuries from last season, don’t want to rush to trades and then suddenly be lacking in depth somewhere.
  3. They will sign a depth goalie at some point. Kekalainen admitted that was a talking point on Saturday.
  4. Finally, I just want to say thank you. Thank you to everyone who reads, interacts and follows along. I’m truly living a dream and I couldn’t do it without you. I’ll be around if news breaks. Otherwise, it’s summer vacation mode for me. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be back for my 10th season starting in September. I promise we will have a lot to discuss about the Blue Jackets and so much more. But for now, go outside and play!