The 2025-26 season hasn’t even begun and the Nashville Predators are dealing with their first major injury of the season. The team announced on Sept. 24 that defenseman Nicolas Hague has suffered an upper body injury and will be out 4-6 weeks.
Hague left the second game of the Predators‘ preseason double-header against the Florida Panthers on Sept. 21 and did not return.
Acquired by Nashville in a trade with the Vegas Golden Knights, Hague signed a four-year, $22 million contract with the Predators on July 1. The trade with Vegas sent Colton Sissons and Jeremy Lauzon to the Golden Knights.
Hague, 26, is a 6-foot-6, 245-pound defenseman who scored five goals and seven assists in 68 games with the Golden Knights last season. Since being drafted in the second round by Vegas in 2017, he has 20 goals and 63 assists in 364 career games.
In camp, Hague had been skating with Roman Josi on the top pairing. In his absence during Nashville’s preseason game against Tampa on Sept. 23 was Adam Wilsby. The Predators also have Brady Skjei, Nick Perbix, Nick Blankenburg, Jordan Oesterle, and Andreas Englund as options on the back end. Rookie Tanner Molendyk also returned to practice on Sept. 24 and could have an increased chance of making the roster now.
Alex Daugherty is the Predators beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Alex at jdaugherty@gannett.com. Follow Alex on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @alexdaugherty1. Also check out our Predators exclusive Instagram page @tennessean_preds.