Let me get something off the bat right away.
Editions of The Mike Babcock Saga have been far and few between this summer at Oil on Whyte.
Given his checkered history, especially in recent years, that might very well be seen as a good thing by a large chunk of hockey fans.
But hockey season is ramping up; while that should rightfully be celebrated, it does come with more editions of the "famed" saga.
Suddenly, my life has gained another meaning.
Now, let's take a look at the Adam Fantilli situation
Currently, Columbus Blue Jackets forward Adam Fantilli is a restricted free agent, having played the duration of his three-year entry-level contract worth just shy of $1 million annually.
The Blue Jackets are still talking to Fantilli, but there remains ground to cover in terms of pay and contract length. It is worth noting that much of that ground stems from the continued fallout of the Leo Carlsson offer sheet saga that shocked the entire NHL over the summer.
But with one week left until training camps kick off across the NHL, the urgency surrounding a Fantilli extension is clearly there. And unless the Blue Jackets find a way to lock Fantilli down for the foreseeable future, there is always the chance that the player holds out or that another team takes a chance at securing a signature via the offer sheet route.
The Oilers probably won't be that team
Simply put, Babcock is now their head coach.
While that might seem like a throwaway reason at the surface level, Fantilli was only just drafted when Babcock was employed by the Blue Jackets. That said, Fantilli was at a prospect tournament when Babcock's misconduct in the Blue Jackets locker room and the subsequent resignation took place. The player did comment on the situation to some capacity, stating that training camp changed significantly and quickly as the events went down and as the team was forced to find a new head coach only a few months after they hired Babcock in the first place.
Though it seems that Fantilli was not significantly implicated by Babcock's misconduct, it's possible to make the inference that his behaviour and departure could still very well have impacted the development of Fantilli and the rest of the Blue Jackets' prospect pool. Obviously, Fantilli is doing quite well statistically three years into his NHL career, but you only get a handful of firsts in the NHL at best. That includes a first camp and a first preseason, and Babcock's behaviour took away from the team's development as a whole and from their late-summer/early-fall activities.
Three years later, the knowledge of what went down and how it impacted the team could very well keep Fantilli, one of the top prospects of the 2023 draft, from joining Connor McDavid and earning an almost-immediate opportunity to win the Stanley Cup.
And unfortunately, it's not just Fantilli who would cross Edmonton off the list given Babcock's history. We've already heard of cases where players and agents within and outside the organization would, case-dependent, avoid the team or leave it entirely because of Babcock.
Though there is now some optimism surrounding the Oilers' chances and how the on-ice pedigree that Babcock has maintained impacts them, there will always be such opposition to the hire based on Babcock's history. And Fantilli's ongoing contract situation could very well serve as such a reminder to Oilers fans and the league as a whole.
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