Following Productive Offseason, Fabbro Ready for New Challenge with Preds

Following Dante Fabbro on social media over the summer months revealed a knack the Predators defenseman has for wakeboarding, something he enjoyed while spending time back home in Vancouver on his dad's new boat.
But when the 23-year-old wasn't on the water, he was doing everything he could to get better in all aspects of his game, and he's already reaping the benefits.
Fabbro, who spent his second full NHL season with the Preds during the 2020-21 campaign, had his ups and downs as every young blueliner does. He was injured in April and only played two more games - both in May - before the regular season concluded, and Fabbro did not appear for Nashville in their six-game series with Carolina in the playoffs.

Following the end-of-season exit meetings, Predators General Manager David Poile and Head Coach John Hynes praised Fabbro for his team-first attitude and positive outlook as the postseason unfolded and the defenseman found himself watching instead of participating.
Fabbro would have preferred to be on the ice, of course, but he understood the decision. Now, he doesn't plan on being in that situation again.
"I think [it was] obviously an unfortunate time for me to get hurt there, but our team started winning and I don't want to be a guy that's pushing people away on our team just because I want to earn a spot to play," Fabbro said. "But I think the exit interview went well and kind of gave me a little bit of a chip on my shoulder for the summer to work hard and to come back better for the next year."
So, now that Fabbro is here in Nashville once more, what did he do to accomplish that goal?
"I worked on my skating quite a bit with a skating coach, which I haven't really in the past," Fabbro said. "Just kind of got back to the foundations and the basics of my edge work and pivoting and whatnot, and I feel like I'm a lot more efficient in that way. I changed a few things, off-ice workouts and making myself more flexible and just being more athletic in a sense."

Fabbro says he's already noticed a difference when it comes to handling the heavy workload in training camp and the long, hard practices that come almost daily. Hynes is seeing it too, and when the bench boss thinks back to those meetings last May, he remembers telling Fabbro what needed to change in the defenseman's game.
Hynes wants Fabbro to be a regular on the backend once more, and all indicators say he's on his way to doing just that.
"To his credit, he really understood during the playoffs when he sat out that other guys had played really well… So, it was more or less what does he need to do to be better?" Hynes said of Fabbro. "For us, it was that he needed to get stronger. That was the number one thing. The second thing was going to be skating, and his speed was going to be important. And then, how he is competitively, like down low in the defensive zone, in and around his own net - those are areas we just want to see a little bit better from him… The only thing he could control this summer was his strength and conditioning, his fitness in the skating, and he really took a big effort into changing his training and doing a better job."
Fabbro knows not every day in the NHL is supposed to be easy, but he wants to feel satisfied with his game more often than not. As he prepares to enter season No. 3 in Nashville, he's a bit older, wiser and ready for the rigors of an 82-game season once more.
"You look at this kind of collectively, I think my first year went pretty well as I kind of did what I wanted to do out there, and my second year I thought I started off well, was playing a little bit better than I was my first year, and then I ran into a couple injury problems and kind of set me back a few steps," Fabbro said. "So, this year I'm kind of focused on just staying healthy and making sure I'm mentally preparing myself every single day…and be ready to go with whatever situation comes my way."
There's no telling what exactly Fabbro will deal with in the months ahead, but he feels as though there's nothing he can't handle. As he did on the wakeboard during the summer, Fabbro found the pocket and just rode the wave.
He can't wait to do that with his teammates, too.
"[I'm most excited] just to see what we've got," Fabbro said. "I think probably a lot of people are counting us out this year, just with some trades and us being a little bit younger, but I like our group. We're competitive, we work hard, nobody takes days off, which is huge, and it's going to push us to be better as individuals and as a team. [I'm just] ready for that first game, and I'm really excited for fans to be back in the buildings, too."