Until Sunday, Nashville was the only NHL organization Dante Fabbro had known.
Chosen by the Predators in the first round (No. 17 overall) of the 2016 draft, Fabbro made his debut with the team in 2019 and played more than 300 games over seven seasons.
Players like that don’t often end up on waivers, but with the Predators off to a sluggish start and the team looking for answers, that’s where the 26-year-old found himself over the weekend. The Blue Jackets saw him as a potential low-risk, high-reward to add to the defensive corps, and come 2 p.m. Sunday, he was Columbus bound.
That’s how life goes in the NHL, but the defenseman wasn’t necessarily mad about it. In many ways, it was time for a fresh start, and Fabbro says it’s exciting that’s coming in Columbus.
“It was a bit of a shock, but I think change is good sometimes,” Fabbro said. “It wasn’t working out in Nashville. For a team to obviously feel like they want you, that feels great as a player. I’m just excited to be here. It’s a great group of guys so far I’ve met, and it feels great.”
Not only did Fabbro go right into the CBJ lineup on Tuesday night in Seattle, he was on the top defensive pair with Zach Werenski. It seems like it could be a good fit, with Werenski’s offensive-minded, puck-possession style able to fit with Fabbro’s more reserved, first pass-focused game.
There were signs of that in Nashville, when Fabbro had some of his best years skating on a pairing with do-it-all offensive defenseman Roman Josi. But the truth is Fabbro likely could have skated with anyone on Tuesday and just been happy to be back on the ice after being a healthy scratch at the end of his Nashville tenure.
“I'm just excited to get out there and go play again,” Fabbro said before the game. “It's kind of nice to try to just rip the band-aid off and get going again. I obviously got a chance to meet the bunch of the guys here today, it seems like a great group of guys. and I'm excited to go to work with them."
The results in game one were a bit mixed, as Fabbro skated 19:17 of action with no points, a shot on goal and an even plus-minus. Per Natural Stat Trick, he was on the ice for 19 shot attempts for and 19 against at 5-on-5, and he was out there for one goal for each team.
Head coach Dean Evason said it will take time for Fabbro to learn the CBJ system, but he wanted to get the new guy on the ice as quickly as possible.
“I think the excitement level overrides maybe some of the systematic stuff that he's going to be thinking,” Evason said. “I think the excitement level of being with a new team can generate that energy that you need to play with.
"He's gonna make some mistakes, coming to a new system, and we try to dial it in with video and chatting with him. But we just want him to play his game. He's a guy that is a steady player. He's not a flashy guy. He's a guy that's real good defensively, moves the puck, simplifies the game, so he should have no problem fitting into our system.”
Once a top prospect of the Predators as he excelled at Boston University – he captained the Terriers in 2018-19, when he posted 33 points in 38 games during his final season of college hockey – Fabbro played 315 games with the squad over his seven seasons. In that time, he totaled 16 goals and 72 points while posting a plus-6 rating.
But this year has been a struggle to find playing time, as he skated in just six games for Nashville before ending up on waivers. Columbus saw him as a good option to add as a right-shot defenseman on a team short of them at the moment, and Fabbro sees his style of play as a fit as well.
“I think it’ll definitely take some time,” Fabbro said when asked about settling into the systems. “But I think the way I play, I’m a puck-moving defenseman. Anytime I can move the puck quick and transition and stuff like that, bring pucks out, I think it benefits the team in a good way. So I’m just going to try to stick to my strength and be simple and just try to get used to their system and play well for these guys.”
It helps that there are some familiar faces in the organization for the Coquitlam, B.C., native, including former Nashville forward Mathieu Olivier and former Preds coach Scott Ford, now an assistant with the Blue Jackets.
His goal is to try to complement Werenski or whatever partner it is as smoothly as possible by getting the puck out of the zone and up the ice.
“I think the faster I distribute the puck and get in transition, it helps our forwards go, and I think it’ll create a lot of offense, too,” Fabbro said. “I just try to stick to my game, which is passing and breaking pucks out and whatnot. We obviously have some high-end talent here, so I want to let them create some offense and see what happens.”
