Though the news had broken a few days ago, it wasn’t official until this morning. Dante Fabbro has officially signed his three-year entry-level contract worth $925K at the NHL level with the Nashville Predators, forgoing his senior season at Boston University. Fabbro’s deal will start this season and he is eligible for play with the Predators right away. Chris Johnston of Sportsnet reports that Fabbro’s contract will include the full Schedule A bonuses in years two and three, meaning he can make up to $850K more in incentives each season.
Importantly, as CapFriendly points out on Twitter, if Fabbro plays in a single game down the stretch for the Predators he will accrue a professional season and be eligible for the 2021 expansion draft. That is certainly a concern for Nashville who already have several exceptional defensemen who will need protection, but it very well could be the thing that convinced the young defensemen to leave college in the first place. Fabbro could have potentially returned to BU for one more season and become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2020. Now however he’ll join an organization that is known best for developing elite defensemen.
The 20-year old was picked 17th overall in 2016 after an outstanding year for the Penticton Vees of the BCHL, and only impressed further during his collegiate career. Recording 33 points in 38 games this season, Fabbro was a Hobey Baker nominee and co-captain of the Terriers. A two-time U20 World Junior medalist, he even competed for Canada at the most recent Spengler Cup and was named to the tournament All-Star team. There is little that Fabbro hasn’t accomplished in his amateur career, but will have to take on a new challenge in joining the Predators.
Notably, the team already has four top rated defensemen on the roster that are bound to eat up most of the minutes. Fabbro is used to being on the ice a ton for BU, but will likely have to slide in somewhere behind P.K. Subban, Mattias Ekholm, Roman Josi and Ryan Ellis, all of whom are averaging at least 22:42 of ice time this season. Josi is only signed through the end of next season, but the other three are locked up long-term.