Marc Del Gaizo

Oct. 30: It appears Del Gaizo’s demotion was a temporary one to bank cap space. He’s back up with the Preds today, the team announced.

Oct. 28: The Nashville Predators are switching things up on their blue line. The organization announced they reassigned defenseman Marc Del Gaizo to their AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals.

The transaction indicates the Predators are ready to re-insert defenseman Dante Fabbro into a starting role. Five defensemen on Nashville’s roster have played in each of the team’s eight games while Fabbro (five) and Del Gaizo (three) are the only two with less than eight.

Nashville won two out of the three games with Del Gaizo in the lineup with promising results from the defenseman. Del Gaizo failed to crack the scoresheet during this call-up while averaging 14:23 of ice time per game but his possession metrics proved encouraging. His 59.6% CorsiFor% and 0.8 E +/- according to Hockey Reference show that the Predators performed better with Del Gaizo on the ice despite the small sample size.

The results haven’t been as promising with Fabbro. The former 17th overall pick of the 2016 NHL Draft has been held scoreless after five games with Nashville this season and has produced relatively null possession metrics with a 51.6% CorsiFor% and 0.0 E +/- while averaging 13:24 of ice time.

He didn’t perform much better next to captain Roman Josi two nights ago although the team secured an overtime victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Nashville must have seen something encouraging in Fabbro’s game giving them confidence to reassign Del Gaizo.

The latter will return to an Admirals team after already registering two games played earlier in the season. The team hasn’t missed him much with a promising 6-1-0-0 record to begin the 2024-25 AHL campaign.

The Predators have re-signed defenseman Marc Del Gaizo to a two-way contract, per a team announcement. The restricted free agent will earn a $775K salary if on the NHL roster next season and $125K in the AHL, Alex Daugherty of The Tennessean reports.

Del Gaizo, 25 next month, was a fourth-round pick of the Preds in 2019. He made his NHL debut last season, recording three assists and a +2 rating while averaging 16:28 across nine appearances in a pair of call-ups in November and March.

The New Jersey native is coming off a career-best season in the minors with the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals. On assignment to the Ads, he set new career highs in goals (8), points (34), and rating (+18) in 60 appearances, leading or tying for the team lead in every offensive category. An undersized (5’11″/187 lbs) left-shot defender, Del Gaizo ended his 2023-24 campaign with seven points and a +6 rating in 15 playoff games for Milwaukee.

Del Gaizo was an RFA this summer after completing his entry-level contract. After the Preds signed Juuso Pärssinen this morning, he was one of two remaining RFAs Nashville had. Now, just forward Philip Tomasino remains without a deal.

Entering his fourth professional season, Del Gaizo is no longer waiver-exempt. On the cusp of challenging for more NHL minutes, there’s a non-zero chance he gets claimed if Nashville attempts to sneak him through and return him to Milwaukee to start the season. Spencer Stastney played more last season and has the inside track to lock down an extra defense spot on the Preds’ opening night roster, supplementing their six D-men signed to one-way deals, but he is still waiver-exempt. That could prove advantageous to Del Gaizo’s chances of starting the season in Tennessee instead of Wisconsin.

The Predators recalled defenseman Marc Del Gaizo from the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals on Monday, according to a team release. His recall is an emergency loan, per CapFriendly’s transactions log, so the Preds retain their three remaining post-trade deadline standard recalls. They used their first of four last week by recalling defenseman Spencer Stastney from Milwaukee.

Del Gaizo, 24, gets his second recall of the season. Nashville summoned their 2019 fourth-round pick for a five-game stint in November, where he impressed with three assists and a +2 rating while averaging 16:22 per game. It was the first call-up of his career.

Now in his third full professional season, Del Gaizo is having a career year with the Admirals. The New Jersey native leads Milwaukee defenders across the board with eight goals, 24 assists and 32 points in 51 games, and his +16 rating is second to Stastney’s +27. He’s been the highlight of a stingy Admirals defense in front of star goalie prospect Yaroslav Askarov, who have combined to allow only 150 goals this season, the third-lowest in the AHL.

Recalling Del Gaizo under emergency conditions suggests one of the Predators’ six healthy defenders may be unavailable for Tuesday’s game against the Sharks. If Del Gaizo is not needed for tomorrow’s contest, they must either convert his emergency recall into a standard one or return him to Milwaukee.

Size remains a concern with Del Gaizo, who checks in at 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds. He’s shown linear development in the minors after a solid three-year collegiate stint at UMass, however, and this likely won’t be his last chance to show what he can do in the NHL. He’s nearing completion of his three-year, $2.775MM entry-level contract and will be an RFA with arbitration rights this summer.