The Predators made two roster moves leading into tonight’s game versus Pittsburgh. Per a team announcement (Twitter link), they have activated defenseman Jeremy Lauzon off injured reserve. In a corresponding move, blueliner Roman Josi was placed on IR.
Lauzon has missed the last three weeks due to a lower-body injury. The 22-year-old is off to a particularly quiet start offensively as he has just one assist in 22 games after putting up a career-best 14 points in 2023-24. However, Lauzon’s physicality is the hallmark of his game and he leads the team in hits per game, checking in at 4.58, down only slightly from last year’s rate when he recorded 386 to lead the NHL by a significant margin.
As for Josi, he last played last Tuesday, meaning he will be eligible to be activated as soon as he’s cleared to return, assuming they back-date the IR placement (meaning he has already missed the required seven days). The captain isn’t producing at quite the same rate as last year when he passed the point-per-game mark for the second time in his career but he’s still Nashville’s leader in scoring with 23 points in 29 games.