The chirps start each morning when Adam Fantilli arrives at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Mich.
They come from one of Fantilli’s teammates and best friends in Zach Werenski.
If it were a buddy cop movie, Werenski would be the grizzled but decorated veteran, Fantilli the talented, hotshot youngster.
As such, It’s only natural for Werenski – the Norris Trophy runner-up a season ago, a U.S. national team veteran and alternate captain for the Blue Jackets – to give his younger counterpart the business during their offseason training sessions.
“I think it’s fun for me to be hard on him, just being an older guy,” Werenski said. “I always give him a lot of crap, and I’m sure he’ll say that. But it’s more in good fun.”
It’s fair to say that Fantilli – someone who also could be in line to be win major NHL trophies, become a national team stalwart and wear a letter on his chest at some point in Columbus – doesn’t mind it.
“It’s all in good fun,” Fantilli said. “He does it just to keep me in line as a young guy and to make jokes, make conversation.
“I love being here with him. It’s great to have a teammate here, especially him. The guy is the best player on our team. You want to try to be with him and to work out and train with him. It’s really helpful.”
And to hear Werenski tell it, it’s not like Fantilli needs the extra push going into his third NHL campaign. The league’s youngest 30-goal scorer a season ago didn’t get where he is by taking days off, and Fantilli has already earned the respect of the nine-year NHL veteran at the top of his game.
“I think I’m not even really showing him the way,” Werenski said. “He has a lot of guys to look up to, and he already knows the way. He’s a great worker, and he knows what he needs to work on in the summers and he does it. He comes in every day and grinds.
“I love having him here. … He’s a hell of a hockey player, and he’s always pushing me to get better and hopefully I can do the same for him. I think it’s great for me. It’s something I wish I had when I was his age. It’s just going to benefit him more and more every year.”
Though he hails from the Greater Toronto Area, Fantilli chooses to get much of his pre-training camp work done in Plymouth, a short 15-minute drive from where he burst onto the scene at the University of Michigan, winning the Hobey Baker Award as the best player in college hockey as a freshman before becoming the third overall pick in the NHL draft.
The 20-year-old center has settled on spending a lot of summer in the Detroit suburbs for a few reasons. Being close to his college town and having U-M buddies to hang out with – including his brother, Luca, a Michigan defenseman – helps, as does the high-level competition he can sharpen himself against during daily workouts and summer skates.
The Hughes brothers – Jack, Quinn and Luke, all young NHL standouts in their own right – are often present, and when BlueJackets.com visited earlier this month for a summer check-in, a bevy of NHLers were in and out of the facility. Fantilli first got the invitation to join during COVID times, when he was still a year or two away from his Michigan exploits or becoming an NHL star but still was making a name for himself in the hockey world.
“I got on the ice and I was so nervous to be around the guys and everything,” Fantilli said. “I was so happy to get on the ice with them for that duration of time. And then slowly as the years go on, I feel like I fit in more and more and actually push the group. … They’re my buddies now.”
The scenes in the gym and on the ice aren’t necessarily dramatic – there’s no ear-splitting music in the gym, no screaming strength coaches getting in the faces of the players – but the intensity is real when you’re working with the best of the best.
The on-ice session was split into drills and mini-games, and the competitiveness among the high-level athletes is palpable. While there are light moments like stick taps for a player who loses an edge and slips to the ice, each 3-on-3 game ends with joyous winners celebrating and losers who start moving nets and pucks into place for the next battle.
Through it all, Fantilli – who has often talked about learning and getting better every day of his NHL career – is a keen observer of what’s going on around him.
“It’s all All-Stars out there,” he said. “You’re going against guys that are the best in the league in a lot of senses. I can take from a lot of guys’ games. You have Jack and Quinn out there that are two of the most shifty guys in the NHL, and that’s something I want to add to my game as well. Cole (Caufield) is such a great shooter. Usually Kyle Connor and (Dylan) Larkin are out there, and those are both world-class forwards as well.
“They’re guys I want to take from their games. Learning from them every day has been really beneficial.”
And then, of course, there’s the presence of Werenski, a fellow Michigan Man who speaks often about how much Fantilli’s work with such decorated pros will help him in his development. This is the second straight year the two have worked together for a significant part of the offseason, and Fantilli sees the benefits of keeping one of his CBJ leaders in close proximity during the summer.
“He’s a great role model,” Fantilli said. “Not only that, I’ve become close with him. He’s a really good friend now. It’s great to be around him. He works so hard. He grinds. It’s a great example for me as a young guy. As a leader in Columbus, he’s a guy that I look up to a lot throughout the season, and being able to have him here in the offseason is just as helpful. It’s great.”
In Fantilli, Werenski sees a player who not only can help take the Blue Jackets to the next level but also someone who has become an indispensable part of its core in just two seasons.
“He’s a guy that’s a leader on this team and is going to be a leader in Columbus for a long time,” Werenski said. “It’s nice to have a young guy like that that understands what it takes to be great in this league.”
And it all starts on warm summer days in suburban Detroit.
