Nine games into the NHL season and the Nashville Predators are through the first month with a 4-5 record. Both defenseman Luke Schenn & forward Cody Glass are on injured reserve while Nashville is one game into a five-game road trip.
Forwards Samuel Fagemo and Liam Foudy are the latest additions to the team via waivers from the Los Angeles Kings and Columbus Blue Jackets. They’ve each played a few games to this point scoring one point.
Foudy picked up an assist — his first with Nashville — during the 5-2 loss in Vancouver on Tuesday evening while Fagemo notched his first career goal as a Predator against the San Jose Sharks on the powerplay.
“I think I can play anywhere in the lineup with these guys,” Foudy said after his first practice in Nashville. “Speed is the biggest factor in my game. Wherever I can contribute with this game getting faster and faster I think it benefits me a lot.”
However, Nashville also recalled defenseman Marc Del Gaizo on Oct. 30 the same day Glass was placed on IR. Back to seven defensemen, the Predators are right back to the identical roster format they had on opening day.
Photo of Liam Foudy courtesy of Nashville Predators
Head coach Andrew Brunette has scratched Philip Tomasino four times this season as the forward has one assist so far — no points since then — as Nashville saw forward Tommy Novak score the first powerplay goal of the season.
Once either Glass or Schenn — the first being more likely — are healthy to play again general manager Barry Trotz has a decision to make since his roster would then be over the 23-player limit.
Four of Nashville’s skaters are not eligible for waivers (Juuso Pärssinen, Luke Evangelista, Tomasino, and Del Gaizo), and only one has not seen any time in a game yet this season.
So the main question will be who will be the odd man out of town and how will Trotz handle it?
“Well, we’re going to make some tough decisions but usually the players make those decisions for you. It’s all based on how they play,” Trotz said on Stillman & Company Tuesday. “We have some options and flexibility with some players that are able to go down to Milwaukee without waivers. We have some flexibility in the fact that we’ve taken two players off of waivers, they could go back on waivers.
“Or we could make a deal that makes some sense for us or another team. Those are getting harder to make these days because of the number of teams that are too heavy on long-term injured reserve. We’ve already talked about the different situations, we probably have five different scenarios we could go with. We’ll let the players sort of lead us down the right path so we get the right one.”
With Glass’ injury expected to persist for the next one to two weeks, the Predators have an in-house showcase way of seeing who may fit the roster from watching afar.
Tomasino has been seen out on the ice later than his teammates most practices. He and assistant coach Dan Hinote were working on a few drills after practice almost two weeks ago.
“Hinote and [skills coach] Sebastien Bordeleau have been helping me work on the specific details that I think our coaching staff wants me to improve on,” Tomasino said. “It’s been fun so hopefully continue to work on those and get back in there soon.”
After Tomasino was not in the lineup for three consecutive games (Oct. 19-24) Brunette shed some light on what he’d like to see from him moving along.
“I think just his pace and his relentlessness to pucks and pursuit of pucks,” Brunette said before playing Toronto last weekend. “I think he has some really good offensive instincts but when you don’t put all the work in all the time It’s hard to really let those shine. I think he had a really good week of practice and I’m looking forward to seeing him.”
After the game, Brunette said it was tough to evaluate both Tomasino and Foudy. Brunette said he lost the duo in the third period against Toronto since special teams had different opportunities and Nashville was primarily rolling three lines. Foudy didn’t have a shift in the third period while Tomasino only had one.
Foudy played 12:55 against the Canucks to start the road trip while Tomasino, Del Gaizo, and Michael McCarron were the odd men out. Fagemo played in his third game as a Predator Tuesday night logging 8:23 of ice time.
Time will tell who Trotz decides can stay and who may be on their way to Milwaukee or another team. It all depends on when Glass and Schenn are ready to hop back on the ice for games.
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