Shocking details of Adam Fantilli's unfortunate injury revealed

Not much has gone right this season for the Columbus Blue Jackets, who were looking to turn a corner in their rebuild this season. Not only did the Jackets acquire the likes of Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson, but they also hired veteran bench boss Mike Babcock to help turn things around. The icing on the cake was that the Blue Jackets also drafted NCAA standout Adam Fantilli with the 3rd overall pick last summer. It all looked great for Columbus this summer, but that was then and this is now.

Mike Babcock didn't even make it to the season opener before he was forced to resign due to some very peculiar behaviour, including checking players' cell phones and scrolling through their photos in an extreme invasion of their privacy. Severson and Provorov have played below expectation and, most recently, Fantilli went down with a lower body injury and was spotted leaving the arena on crutches and in a medical walking boot.

On January 28th, Fantilli attempted to finish a hard check on Seattle's Jared McCann, but came away immediately favouring his left leg. It was unclear as to what had happened on the play, but Fantilli went right down the tunnel and did not return. When he was spotted with the crutches and boot, fans feared the worst.

On Monday, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported that the injury to Fantilli was actually a skate laceration to his leg. As you can see in the replay below, McCann's skate does make contact with Fantilli's left leg, alarmingly close to his Achilles tendon.



At this point, it's unclear what Fantilli's timeline for recovery might be. With recent skate lacerations, such as the one Evander Kane had suffered last season, it had kept him out for months. Depending on the severity of Fantilli's laceration, his season could be over. If it's just a surface wound, however, perhaps he won't miss as much time as originally thought.