2:15 PM: Columbus has moved Kent Johnson to injured reserve to make space for this waiver claim, per Aaron Portzline of The Athletic. Johnson hasn’t played since suffering a shoulder injury on October 17th. Columbus will be able to make this IR placement retroactive to that date, making this move purely a paper transaction and Johnson eligible to return as soon as he’s back to full health.
1:00 PM: The Blue Jackets have claimed defenseman Dante Fabbro off waivers from the Predators, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Columbus’ assignment of Kent Johnson to IR opens the roster spot to make this possible.
Fabbro, a 6’0″ right-shot defender who was a first-round pick out of Boston University in 2016, is now in his seventh NHL season and had been a fringe top-four option for most of his time in Nashville. But after signing a one-year, $2.5MM extension in March to keep him off last summer’s restricted free-agent market, Fabbro tumbled down the Preds’ depth chart and was a healthy scratch in five straight games before landing on waivers yesterday.
In hindsight, 2023-24 marked the writing on the wall for Fabbro’s tenure in Nashville. He was a healthy scratch on more than a few occasions last season, too, only making 56 appearances and averaging a career-low 16:21 when in the lineup. This year, Fabbro went scoreless in six games with a -3 rating and set a new career-low with a 13:06 ATOI before hitting the waiver wire.
Some thought Fabbro’s $2.5MM cap hit meant teams would stray away from submitting claims, but Columbus has the second most cap space in the league, at $22.92MM, per PuckPedia. It’s not a challenge to fit him on the roster financially, although they now carry eight defensemen. With Erik Gudbranson potentially out for the rest of the season after shoulder surgery last month, there likely won’t be a ton of roster movement regarding Columbus’ back end from here on out unless more injuries strike.
Fabbro’s addition does give the Jackets another experienced name on the back end, and he has decent career possession numbers with a 50.0 CF% and 49.5 xGF% at even strength. However, his presence on the roster means additional competition for 20-year-old right-shot defender David Jiříček, who’s been a healthy scratch for all but five games this season and has averaged under 12 minutes per game in the lineup. It’s not a promising sign for his development after Columbus selected him sixth overall in 2022.
Since Nov. 1 is in the rearview mirror, waiver priority is determined by reserve standings order in terms of points percentage. That means the Canadiens, Sharks, Blackhawks, Ducks, Flyers, Kraken, and Penguins all passed on Fabbro.
Smart move. They’ve got oodles of cap space. He’s young, right-handed and could be a good reclamation project. They’re probably going to be shipping out veterans at the deadline so he’ll get some good ice time.
Wow, Trotz couldn’t even get a mid round pick for a former 1st rounder? This looks like the Tolvanen debacle.
Was reading some Canucks material yesterday, looks like they had been sniffing around on Fabbro for a while. I have to assume at the very least that Trotz has talked with Allvin about a trade but couldn’t make anything work.
@Gbear — Let’s hope they’re not trying to take the team back to ground zero, with a complete do-over mentality. The idea of getting two proven Cup champions? Excellent. But, right now, they both seem a bit out of place. It’s as though the rest of the group doesn’t know how to pick their brains to understand how to play the right way. A few other teams are dumping their former 1st and 2nd-rounders, too. I knew the definition of patience was changing, but this is getting to be helter-skelter in this league right now.
@Mac – Hard to imagine a team getting ziltch for two former 1st round picks. Ugh.
Trotz is looking for a top 6 center, so maybe this was a cap clearing move. Preds combined record for the first 15 game segments of last season and the current one is 10-19-1. Different rosters, same coach.
I think the issue is that every GM knew that Trotz was backed up over the cap wall. Why give up an asset (or at least, play hard to get) when you might have a chance to snag him for free?
I’m more surprised that several teams passed on the chance to add Fabbro.
Be a good time to move Provorov and Harris and bring up Denton Mateychuk.
Be a good time to send Jiricek down to where he belongs.
What in the name of the development of Jiricek is going on?
Jiricek is a dumpster. He was told by the adults in charge to earn it and the the only thing he’s earning is a ride to Cleveland.