Neutral-Zone Crap: Fantilli goes on the offensive

Adam Fantilli of the University of Michigan hasn't set out to make any bold statements about the 2023 draft, but his play is making them for him

Adam Fantilli, left, and his brother Luca are freshmen at the University of Michigan this season.

You reach Adam Fantilli on a Wednesday night in October and he’s folding laundry in his dorm room at the University of Michigan, a room he shares with his older brother and fellow Wolverine freshman, Luca. Then it dawns on you that there are actually 18-year-old kids out there who not only do their own laundry, but fold it and put it away. Good to know.

And with his start at the collegiate hockey career, another thing might be dawning on you at the moment. And that is that maybe, just maybe, the competition for No. 1 overall in 2023 NHL draft is going to be closer than we all thought. For more than two years, basically since he shredded the competition at the World Under-18 Hockey Championship in 2021 as a 15-year-old, Connor Bedard has been the presumptive No. 1 choice in 2023. And since then, Bedard has done absolutely nothing to dissuade anyone of that notion. In fact, he’s been cementing it.