Laine, Fantilli building chemistry one meal at a time

Patrik Laine isn’t planning to open a restaurant anytime soon, but if he did, he’d likely have an enthusiastic patron on night one.

The Blue Jackets star welcomed the organization’s top prospect, first-round pick Adam Fantilli, into his home for a few weeks this summer, and the young center left Laine’s home raving about one thing.

“His cooking is unreal, I’m not even gonna lie,” Fantilli said. “He’s a wizard with the air fryer. He made us some pretty good steaks in the air fryer and his chicken was really good, too. The minute rice was also pretty good.

“I’m telling you, he knows what he’s doing in the kitchen.”

There’s often no better place to build chemistry and relationships than the dinner table, but it appears steaks and chicken won’t be the only thing Laine will be dishing out to the talented youngster.

So far, the two seem on the same page both off the ice and on it, if this weekend’s action was any indication. Saturday, the two linemates and fast friends hooked up for a pair of goals in an open scrimmage at Nationwide Arena, each feeding the other for a tally, including a highlight reel deke and pass from Laine to Fantilli.

Sunday, the two worked together to set up an early goal by linemate Alexandre Texier, and Fantilli later added a no-look assist to Carson Meyer in his Nationwide Arena debut.

It was the perfect appetizer for those looking to see both Laine continue to fill the net and Fantilli have a successful rookie campaign, and it’s perhaps by design. When Laine – the No. 2 overall selection in the 2016 draft – saw the Blue Jackets draft Fantilli with the third overall pick this summer, he also realized the University of Michigan product was someone he could take under his wing.

“As soon as we signed him, I wanted to try to help him out as much as I could,” Laine said. “I was second overall myself, and him being third, coming in with a lot of expectations as an 18-year-old, it’s not easy to play in this league as an 18-year-old. On top of that, people are expecting you to do a lot of great things. It’s not easy.

“I just figured with my girlfriend, we’d give him a chance and offer him to stay with us and get more comfortable with the team and how everything works here. We were super happy to have him over. He was such a good guy. Just excited to get to know him more when the season goes on.”

For Fantilli, he was eager to accept the invitation, and not just because it saved him from having to book a hotel room for a few weeks in the late summer as he headed to his new home in Central Ohio.

“Both he and his girlfriend have been phenomenal taking me in and being really outgoing and really welcoming,” Fantilli said. “I’ve gotten to know him pretty well that way. He’s a joy to be around. I always love just messing around and being really upbeat around him to get him smiling and get him going. I’ve enjoyed it a lot.

“He’s been on a similar path, and he’s gone through it and succeeded. I’m trying to take as much as I can from him. Obviously he has a bunch of experience that I don’t, so I just try to learn from him and take every little bit of knowledge from what he’s trying to tell me.”

First-year CBJ head coach Pascal Vincent has known Laine since he arrived in the NHL, as Vincent was an assistant with Winnipeg during the Finnish star’s first season in the league. As a coach, he is excited to see one of the veterans on his team take such interest in helping along a rookie like Fantilli, and as a person, Vincent was not surprised at all to see Laine step up.

“I know Patrik more than anybody else around here, and he’s got a kind heart,” Vincent said. “If he can do that, he’ll do it. … He feels he’s more of a leader. Even though he’s still a young player in some capacity – not very young, but he’s not an old player – he feels like he’s listened to, he can speak. He's respected in the room, and guys like him. He feels part of it.”

The off-the-ice chemistry so far has led to some on-ice fireworks, even with the caveat that it’s early in the preseason. It wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see that continue, though, as both are big players with size and skill who have an offensive mind-set. On top of that, they bring a similar attitude to the bench.

“I think we communicate really well,” Fantilli said. “I think we think the game similarly. We just want to have a lot of fun. We’re messing around sometimes. I like to have a lot of fun on the bench and joke around a lot. I’m always nudging him or something like that. I think it makes things easier when you are keeping it light.”

That’s no problem for Laine, who is known for his dry humor and authentic personality. And, apparently, his cooking, even if the man himself doesn’t quite believe it.

“(Fantilli) was complimenting my food, even though I know it’s not very good,” Laine said. “He was saying it’s unreal. I’m not sure I should believe him or not. The air fryer is doing most of the work anyways. I can’t mess it up.”