Top of the lottery prospects: Adam Fantilli ends season as Hobey Baker winner

Since the last time we checked in with Adam Fantilli, he and the University of Michigan won the 2023 Big Ten Tournament but then lost in the NCAA Tournament. In those four games, he picked up three more goals and two more assists to bring his season total to 65 points (30 G, 35 A) in 36 games. Fantilli also had points points in 33 of those 36 games (91.6 percent), with 19 being multi-point performances (52.8 percent).

Fantilli’s 1.81 points-per-game rate is the best NCAA season by a draft-eligible player since Paul Kariya (2.56) in 1992-1993, just beating out Jack Eichel’s rate (1.78) in the 2014-2015 season.

Not surprisingly, this impressive run for Fantilli earned him the 2023 Hobey Baker Award, awarded to the top NCAA men’s hockey player. And he won it as a freshman, only the third college rookie to to do so – joining Kariya and Eichel.

As for his performance in the final games of the season, Fantilli capped off an impressive Big Ten Tournament performance with an assist in the championship game against Minnesota on March 18. He picked up his assist on Rutger McGroarty’s second goal of the game:

Fantilli ultimately earned Most Outstanding Player honors for the tournament, was named to the big 10 All-Tournament Team, and set tournament records for points (11) and goals (7).

Michigan opened up the NCAA Tournament by absolutely destroying the underdog Colgate 11-1 in regional semifinals. Fantilii scored a goal and added an assist in the win.

For his goal, Fantilli traversed through all three zones before making a power move around a Colgate defenseman to score. It was an unassisted, individual effort that showed his poise with the puck while transitioning, his strength one-on-one, and his hands in close.

His assist came as a sleek little setup on McGroarty’s goal about 12 minutes into the second period. Fantilli isn’t necessarily known as a creative playmaker, but he makes quick, efficient setups like this consistently:

After that trashing, Michigan moved on to defeat Penn State 2-1 in overtime, punching Michigan’s ticket to the Frozen Four. The Wolverines were down 1-0 with 7:52 left in the game when Fantilli scored on the power play, bringing some much-needed momentum to the Wolverines.

Fantilli started and finished the play for his goal: he set up Mackie Samoskevich for the initial one-timer that created a scramble in front and ultimately cleaned up a rebound from below the right circle. Note that Fantilli played the Patrick Kane role for Michigan’s power play:

Unfortunately, Fantilli and Michigan’s tournament ended in the Frozen Four semifinals as they fell in overtime 3-2 to Quinnipiac, the team that went on the win the national championship. Fantill notched his goal on a one-timer midway  through the second period, tying the game at two:

Despite only scoring one goal in this game, Fantilli was one of the best players on the ice and it felt like he could have had another two or three more goals if not for the performance of Quinnipiac goalie Yaniv Perets and the post. Check out one of those chances here where Fantilli split two defensemen to get a shot off:

If you’d like to listen to Fantilli’s Hobey Baker speech, it can be found in full here:

Additionally, Michigan head coach Brandon Naurato went on the NHL Draft Class podcast to talk about Fantilli’s performance this season:

And finally, Scott Wheeler of The Athletic wrote a deep dive on Fantilli that includes insights from several former coaches and his brother, Luca Fantilli, who played with him at Michigan: