Nashville Predators: Players Who Need to Elevate After Two Early Losses

2. Dante Fabbro

Here’s another example, although on a smaller scale, of a player I’ve defended against the critics and still think he can reach his full potential in a Nashville Predators uniform and that’s Dante Fabbro.

Fabbro had a rough season-opener against the Seattle Kraken as he was the focal point of the first goal scored by Seattle where he inadvertently screened his own goaltender:

It’s a tough break for Fabbro as he was trying to make an aggressive play skating from the other side of the zone, but ultimately he made Saros’ chances of making what would normally be a routine save that much more difficult, and ended in a goal.

Fabbro he’s still so young in his own right at age 23, and yet we often don’t include him in this youth movement because he’s been around for a while on the NHL level, and getting a lot of playing time with Mattias Ekholm on the same pairing.

The Predators really need a strong bounce-back game, and stretch of games, from Fabbro as he continues to get work on that troubled third defensive pairing. He needs to be an leader in that role, and hopefully the Predators can figure out who can line up next to him. That’s a whole other set of issues.

Much like Duchene, the book isn’t written on Fabbro yet and I’m not ready to fully give up on him. It is vital that he improves as the season progresses, and it has to happen now. He can solve some of these depth issues for the Predators.