Player Discussion: Adam Fantilli

[NotCommitted]

I find giveaways/takeaways a pretty meaningless stat tbh. For one thing they never seem to count them like I do Any player who has the puck a lot and tries to get things done offensively will usually have poor ratio anyway. And not every giveaway is the same, feels pretty meaningless without any context.

If I really wanted to track them, I'd focus on a player and count them and label every giveaway bad/good, like if it's a low danger giveaway trying to make a good play, then it's a good one, if it's dangerous or trying force a play that just isn't there, it's a bad one. Knowing team system inside out would help in making that judgment.

I'm not worried about Fantilli but he seems to be struggling and no need to sugar coat it. It's not surprising, sophomore slump is often a thing and he missed a ton of time last year with injury, which I'm sure didn't help his development. Haven't been able to watch much hockey at all this season yet, but I'm under the impression for the most part he's also facing a bigger challenge this season, playing with worse linemates and having to drive the line more and not doing a good job of it so far. His numbers at least are pretty bad.

 

[cbjthrowaway]

one thing I noticed looking at his stats this season,

15 giveaways in 49 games last season.

34 giveaways in just 27 games this season.

19 more giveaways in 22 (!!) less games. leads all forwards in giveaways

giveaways and takeaways are fundamentally flawed and notoriously poorly-tracked statistical measures that I'd argue are meaningless.

why? because you can only register a giveaway if you have the puck, and a takeaway if you don't. last year's team sucked and never had the puck. this year's team is good at 5v5.

last year's (bad) team had more takeaways than giveaways. they had three players with 30+ giveaways across 82 games, and none over 40.

this year's (good-ish) team has about 3x as many giveaways as takeaways, and five players over 30 giveaways in just 27 games.

one particularly funny example is kirill marchenko, who has greatly improved his two-way game and become a good defensive player. last year he had 49 takeaways and 28 giveaways. this year he has 13 takeaways and 32 giveaways.

@CBJWerenski8 — regarding face off percentage,

this season: 41.2 percent
last season: 43.6 percent.

in the athletic's u23 player rankings the only three centers above fantilli are bedard, celebrini and stutzle.

celebrini is at 49%, which is great for a rookie. the other two are under 35%. jack hughes aged out of those rankings but he's another bona fide 1C and his face off percentage is at 36%.

it truly is not a big deal for young players (especially skill guys) to struggle with face-offs.

 

[KJ Dangler]

Not remotely worried about Fantilli , his ceiling , etc . He’s playing #2 C and getting lots of dangerous chances , he’s snakebitten at this point. He’s yet to play a full season in the nhl , has 17g 23a as a 20 yr old playing many nights against the top lines in the NHL . Evason knows what he’s doing .

 

[Napoli]

Fantilli will only improve playing with KJ. Would I like a little more sense to his zone entries and shot selection? Of course. He's learning what works and what doesn't. Even if he hasn't been good, his playing is not even remotely as concerning as KJ's last year. He will figure it out and probably break out next year like KJ is doing this year.

Patience is required even for potential superstars.

 

[Jovavic]

Can't wait to see if him and Brindley can rekindle that Michigan magic when they get the chance

 

[S1N4TR4]

so… uh… according to hockeystatcards, that was not just fantilli’s worst game of the season but the worst game of his career.

 

[S1N4TR4]

now 22 for his last 62 faceoffs.

35 percent. not great.

 

[tunnelvision]

I wasn't super focused while watching tonight's game but as I compared his play to Carlsson I couldn't help but notice how much he still needs to catch up in terms of processing speed. I think the game is played too fast for him to handle all center tasks, and it doesn't seem like he's mastered any smaller detail or part of the game yet either, such as puck protection around the boards or body positioning in 50/50 loose puck situations etc.

I hope they're making right decisions for his development but I've been mentally prepared that he might be a winger long-term.