Nic Hague injury opens up potential opportunity for Tanner Molendyk on Nashville Predators top defensive pairing
The Nashville Predators will be without one of their top defensemen for at least a month, but may gain a top prospect back.
On Wednesday, it was announced that defenseman Nicolas Hague would be out for 4-6 weeks with an upper-body injury after leaving Sunday's preseason game against the Florida Panthers early and not returning.
"Obviously, it's a big loss here early," Predators head coach Andrew Brunette said on the Hague injury. "I thought he played exceptionally well. It was good to see Hager [Hauge] on your own team with his size and the small things he brings."
"He had pretty good chemistry in the short time he played with Jos [Roman Josi], but that's part of the game."
At the same time, Tanner Molendyk, who sustained an injury during Prospect Tournament practice on Sept. 11 and has been out for nearly two weeks, returned to practice and could fill in Hague's spot on the first defensive pairing.
"It's kind of a game of catch up now," Molendyk said. "I missed two weeks here, which is not ideal timing, but I've got to show what I've done over the summer and prove that I want to be here opening night."
The Predators prospect had a dominant season in juniors, as was expected to have a shot at making the Predators roster coming into training camp.
An injury ahead of the NHL Prospects Tournament limited Molendyk's ice time and forced him to miss the Predators' first two preseason games. However, he's returning to the lineup with a chance to really show just how well he can fit into this defensive corps.
"We have a lot of depth on the back end," Brunette said. "We still haven't seen Tanner [Molendyk], so we're looking forward to see him come in a game hopefully tomorrow or on the weekend."
A lot of where Molendyk will land in the line-up depends on two things: his own health and who Roman Josi will work the best with, according to Brunette.
Molendyk's timing is almost perfect as the Predators will play an intersquad scrimmage on Thursday in the Gold Star Showcase at F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville.
This will allow Molendyk and the Predators to wage if he'll be ready to go for the team's road preseason matchups against the Tampa Bay Lightning (Saturday) and Carolina Hurricanes (Sunday).
"He has an opportunity [to step in Hague's spot]," Brunette said. "It's too bad he missed a week of our camp, but he's got some opportunities here this weekend and hopefully he'll get through the test tomorrow in Clarksville. That's going to dictate if he's healthy enough to play. We're hoping he is."
If Molendyk were to return to the lineup, he may not join Josi on the first pairing as the pair have similar styles of play. What has allowed Josi and Hague to work so well is that Josi is a more offensively minded defenseman, while Hague plays more traditionally.
Brunette said that he likes the second pairing of Brady Skjei and Nick Perbix, so Molendyk could see himself in the third pairing if the Josi combination doesn't work out.
"We're going to have to trial and error here a bit to find out what's best for Roman and where we feel most comfortable," Brunette said. " Perbix and Brady [Skjei] have been really good together, too. We have to decide if we want to move some things around here. We have some decisions to make here."