Depth among the Nashville Predators forwards is very thin with veteran experience, and early on Jonathan Marchessault has been the first injury to navigate through among this position group.
Marchessault is dealing with a nagging lower body injury and has missed the last two games, both losses for the Predators against the Winnipeg Jets and Anaheim Ducks.
It's not expected that Marchessault will miss too much more time, if any. You don't want to force back a player that's not 100 percent this early in the season and risk further complicating the injury for a longer amount of time. For as much criticism as Marchessault receives for underperforming, he is still vital to the Predators improving from last season's nearly last place showing.
Jonathan Marchessault dealing with a lower body injury but should be ready to go on Thursday for Nashville Predators as they host Vancouver
Marchessault's absence against Anaheim paved the way for Brady Martin to appear in his third game with the Nashville Predators. He got action mostly on the third line with Tyson Jost and Fedor Svechkov lining up at center. He also saw some brief ice time with Ryan O'Reilly and Filip Forsberg.
Martin has now been reassigned back to the OHL well before reaching his nine-game limit. In the game against Winnipeg, Marchessault's injury absence was announced close to puck drop and it left the Predators with 11 forwards. Now with Martin officially sent back to the OHL, the Predators have exactly 12 forwards on the active roster and seven defensemen.
This leaves room for another call-up, and it should be either Joakim Kemell, Matthew Wood or Zachary L'Heuruex. All are waivers exempt. Even with Marchessault getting back into the starting lineup as soon as Thursday, you have room to make an additional call-up.
Where will Marchessault draw back into the lineup?
When Marchessault gets back in, the assumption might be that he fits back in with a productive line of Michael Bunting and Erik Haula. Who gets pushed out as a healthy scratch to make room for Haula could be Jost, even though he scored one of the two goals the Predators managed against Anaheim.
Ozzy Wiesblatt has played pretty well with his forechecking and physical style of play, so I'm not exactly crazy about taking him out, but someone has to come out to make room for Marchessault. It's probably either Jost or Wiesblatt.
Marchessault has two goals and two assists on the season in five games, but his most noticeable play of the young season if for the wrong reason when he failed to sink the shot on the empty netter against Montreal, resulting in a breakaway goal the other way with just three seconds left in regulation. The Predators would then lose it in overtime.
In his first season with the Nashville Predators, Marchessault played in 78 of the 82 games and tallied 21 goals and 35 assists. His goal total was cut in half from his previous season with the Golden Knights.