With rumblings already starting to brew about General Manager Barry Trotz's patience with the Nashville Predators, it makes you wonder what is the point in constantly healthy scratching Dante Fabbro.
Fabbro has played in just six of the Predators' 14 games so far, averaging a career-low 13:06 of ice time dating back to his debut NHL season when he only appeared in four games.
If the Predators continue down this path of ineptitude, then it's inevitable that the trade pieces will start to be dealt. Who knows how long exactly that will take, but Fabbro once again will be one of the first to come to mind to be traded.
Fabbro has become inevitable and a waste of roster space for Preds
It's just hard for me to make sense of paying $2.5 million and reserving an NHL roster spot for a player who is rarely playing and is clearly not in your long-term future.
Now to be fair, I think Fabbro is way better than a seventh defensemen. If he can find the right landing spot, he can be as good as a quality second pairing defensemen for someone. And he's on the last year of his current deal, so some team out there could see him as a low-risk and possibly high reward addition.
Looking at the Predators' defensive prospects in the system, they've got plenty of options. We're already seeing Marc Del Gaizo get a prominent role and starting regularly, while we're still unsure of what's going on with Spencer Stastney and his absence.
A lot of people would rather swap out Luke Schenn for Fabbro, but for whatever reason that just doesn't seem to happen. Perhaps it could in the coming days and weeks if the team continues to sputter along, but the writing kind of seems on the wall that Fabbro has no future here.
Schenn brings you one thing, and that's veteran toughness. He brings virtually no offense and is a step slow. He's 35 and has two years remaining on his current deal. I see no way of him being traded, and there's a much better chance of finding a trade partner for Fabbro.
Trade Fabbro or play him over Schenn
So if you're not going to play Fabbro over Schenn on a regular basis, then trade the guy. It's that simple with where I'm currently at on it.
Back to the prospect pool you can dip into if the Predators choose to go really young later in the season, you have Ryan Ufko as a popular candidate. He has just one point in nine games for the Milwaukee Admirals so far this season, and I just don't think it's wise to rush him into a bad situation on the NHL level.
You really don't have a lot of options that are NHL-ready in the defensive prospect pool. Especially when you break it down to right shot defensemen, which Fabbro is. If you trade Fabbro, you can always call up another left shot defenseman as your seventh defender.
The Predators are in a pickle for sure right now with their defensive corps, but Fabbro is wasting space as a $2.5 million player and hardly playing. You have two options; play him more often over Schenn or trade him for whatever you can get.