Nashville Predators Call Up Spencer Stastney after Dante Fabbro Injury News

Spencer Stastney has been viewed for a while as the next defenseman up when the Nashville Predators suffer any injury to their defensive corps, and that's what's happening now with Dante Fabbro being out two to three weeks.

Stastney is being called up as an emergency loan for the Predators and is still on his entry level contract signed back in 2022. He will be a restricted free agent this offseason.

Defensive Shuffling or do you Turn to Tyson Barrie?

This is the first long-term injury the Predators have had to deal with since November and December when the team had to navigate around multi-week injuries to Tommy Novak, Cody Glass, Luke Schenn and Alexandre Carrier.

Over the last couple of months, the Predators have been very fortunate on the injury front. However, losing Fabbro for at least two weeks, and possibly longer, will be a difficult challenge to overcome. Not because Stastney isn't ready for NHL playing time, but because it disrupts the chemisty of the top pairing with Roman Josi.

Stastney plays on the left side which will force some shuffling of the defensive pairings. Jeremy Lauzon has been playing on the left side alongside Carrier, while Fabbro is on the right side with Josi.

With Stastney moving in, it raises the question of if Tyson Barrie slots back into a starter's role as a right sided defenseman to easily fill in for Fabbro. Or does Head Coach Andrew Brunette choose to switch Lauzon to the right side to play with Stastney.

Barrie was expected to be traded at last week's trade deadline, but no deals could be reached. Barrie has been constantly healthy scratched and considered the seventh defenseman. It will be interesting to see if he is leap frogged by the younger Stastney for a starting role on Wednesday against the Winnipeg Jets.

What Can Stastney Provide for Preds Lineup?

Stastney has 17 NHL games under his belt and last played on December 7th in a win over the Tampa Bay Lightning, a game where he logged 18:20 of ice time and three blocked shots.

For the Milwaukee Admirals this season, Stastney has 20 points in 44 games. This is only his second professional hockey season after being drafted by the Predators in the fifth round of 2018's draft, and playing four seasons collegiately for the University of Notre Dame.

Stastney will bring more speed and offensive capabilities to the defensive corps over Fabbro, but the downside is Stastney might be more susceptible to defensive miscues over the much more steady and experienced Fabbro.

This is a great opportunity for Stastney to showcase just how NHL ready he is going into the 2024 offseason and beyond into 2024-25. He is looked at as a key piece to the Predators' youth rebuild, which has been hampered a bit now that the Predators are pushing for the postseason and got a bit older at the trade deadline among their forwards with Jason Zucker being added.

Fabbro just signed another one-year contract extension at $2.5 million, the same contract amount he signed for in 2023.

This is a stiff test for the Predators who have overwhelming odds to return to the Stanley Cup playoffs, but losing Fabbro for what could be the rest of the regular season won't be easy to overcome. The Predators wrap up their regular season on April 7, just over three weeks from now which is the high end of Fabbro's injury timetable.