3 Players Entering Final Season With Nashville Predators

The Nashville Predators really got a lot better on paper and are ready to show the improvement from last season. There are still some changes that the team may be looking to make by the trade deadline and then evaluate the roster once again next offseason. Not everyone will be back with Nashville, so here's a look at three players likely entering their final season with the team.

Dante Fabbro

Date Fabbro has had a very up and down NHL career. He came in strong, but that was when he was getting a good opportunity to succeed. That hasn't been the case the last two seasons with Ryan McDonagh in town. But soon after he left, Brady Skjei was brought in. There's a chance Fabbro gets time on the top pairing with Roman Josi, but if he doesn't, it will probably be more of the same lackluster play at the bottom of the lineup which then causes the Predators to just move on from the 26-year-old.

Luke Schenn

Luke Schenn is also up there in age and will be 35 years old in the first half of this upcoming season. He has two years left on his deal, but if anyone is going to be traded to free up more cap space now that Cody Glass is gone, it's going to be Schenn. He is showing his age and shouldn't have even played as many games as he did last season for the Predators. If Nashville is looking to upgrade at the trade deadline, Schenn is likely the piece going back to make the cap space work.

Gustav Nyquist

While I'm not as sure of Gustav Nyquist leaving as the first two, what convinced me is that the Predators have a lot of good young talent trying to break into the NHL as well as Jonathan Marchessault now signed for a number of years and Luke Evangelista almost ready to take the next step. The young right winger may be able to step into a second line role and bump Marchessault up to the top line after next season when Nyquist will be 35. He likely won't have a repeat of his career year and his age will start to show. If it doesn't, then there's a chance he returns, but the Predators are also fairly tight on cap space.