Dante Fabbro once again considered top trade bait for Nashville Predators

After going on a massive shopping spree on Day 1 of NHL Free Agency, the Nashville Predators now have to explore trading away players such as Dante Fabbro, among others.

Fabbro yet again looks like the odd man out in the Predators defensive corprs, and it's not because he's a bad player that doesn't bring value to the team. But with the team signing Brady Skjei to a lengthy seven-year contract, and Alexandre Carrier returning with a three-year deal, it makes you wonder where Fabbro fits now.

All signs indicate that Skjei will slot in on the top pairing with Roman Josi. Skjei is a pure left-side defenseman, while Josi can switch to the right side. That makes for a really formidable top pairing with two guys who have offensive flare and are smart with their defensive instincts.

Fabbro doesn't have a fit with the Nashville Predators anymore

Without Skjei in the mix, there was a place for Fabbro still and it was next to Josi. These two played 604 minutes of ice time as a pair, second on the team only behind the Carrier/Lauzon pairing.

It's hard for me to find a place for Fabbro now, and trading him makes complete sense now for both parties. Fabbro deserves to find a team that required him more than the Predators do. And there's only one more year left on his current deal, so the trade partner doesn't have to take on a whole lot of risk with taking Fabbro.

Here's what Fabbro does great; he is a steady and wise defensive defenseman. Aside from the occasional mishaps, Fabbro is very trustworthy in his own zone and just making the smart play when needed. What hasn't come from Fabbro as much as you would like is his offensive game. It's made it hard to justify keeping him in the top-four at times, and especially now with Skjei in the mix.

Fabbro has a cap hit of $2.5 million, which doesn't sound like a lot, but the Predators need to carve out space anywhere they can to give themselves some flexibility going into the regular season. After their enormous spending day of adding Steven Stamkos to $8M per year, Jonathan Marchessault at $5.5M per year, Skjei at $7M per year, and re-signing Carrier at $3.75M per year, there's basically no money left.

Predators need to free up cap space before the regular season

The Predators have a projected $596,000 left in cap space. Only five teams have less, so it's just logical to unload a $2.5 million player like Fabbro who is going to have a hard time finding a starting role and is more often than not going to be the seventh defenseman.

You also have to take into account that the Predators have a very promising crop of defensive prospects they're high on. Marc Del Gaizo is held in high regard, and the team just traded for Andrew Gibson who has high upside potential to get called up.

I wouldn't call Fabbro a cap casualty even though that's the primary reason he's on the trade block. Along with freeing up some cap space, Fabbro can hopefully fetch you another prospect or at least more draft capital. You're not going to get a major starter for Fabbro unless it's part of a bigger package that includes another player like Yaroslav Askarov, which is entirely possible.

It might very well come down to Fabbro being included a larger trade package rather than being a one-for-one swap. However, I don't see the Predators going big game hunting in their trades with the top of their lineup already looking so strong.

Fabbro's future in the NHL remains promising. He got thrown into heavy minutes on the NHL level very young. It's easy to forget that Fabbro is only 26-years-old because he's been on the NHL level since he was 20. At age 21 he played in 64 games for the Predators and averaged 19 minutes of ice time.

If Fabbro can find the right team, he can be a worthy top-four defenseman. He needs a better fit than what Nashville can give him moving forward.