LATEST | Adam Fantilli says he won't be paying attention to the draft lottery the reasoning says lots about him

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Cooper Godin
May 8, 2023 (11:51)

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The National Hockey League is set to hold their draft lottery on Monday night at 8 p.m. ET. While everyone's eyes will be on who selects first overall and will take Connor Bedard in next month's draft, the second overall pick will be an interesting one to keep an eye on.

As of now, the projected second overall pick is University of Michigan forward Adam Fantilli, who had a fantastic rookie campaign in the NCAA, earning himself the Hobey Baker Award after putting up 65 points in 36 games.

As the eyes of the hockey world will be focused on the draft lottery tonight, one person who won't be watching is the aforementioned Adam Fantilli and his reason - he'll be asleep.

Fantilli is currently over in Hungary with the Canadian Men's National Team as they prepare for the upcoming 2023 IIHF World Hockey Championship, which begins on Friday. The timing of the draft lottery means that Fantilli would have to be up at 2 a.m. in Budapest, something he says he won't be doing.

"I'm not going to do that for the lottery. No chance," Fantilli said with a laugh. "I don't think I'm going to set an alarm to wake up. We've got some pretty tough practices here. I guess I'll just wake up and find out in the morning."

While Fantilli and Canada are currently focused on their goal of bringing home the gold medal in just under three weeks from now, he could be getting familiar with some future teammates or even coaches. Arizona Coyotes head coach Andre Tourigny is Canada's bench boss for the tournament and his club have 7.7% chance of selecting second overall.

Meanwhile, Flyers forward Scott Laughton was full of praise for the 18-year-old, saying that he's impressed after only two practices together with how mature he is and hopes that Philadelphia jumps up to the first or second overall pick in tonight's lottery to have an opportunity to select him in next month's draft.

The Columbus Blue Jackets currently hold the best odds to land the second overall pick and select Fantilli, with a 14.1% chance, while the Vancouver Canucks have 3.2% chance of jumping up to the second spot.

Fantilli and Canada will kick off their World Championship schedule on Friday at 1:20 p.m. ET/10:20 a.m. PT as they take one of the co-hosts, Latvia.

CREDIT: Habs et LNH