Three shifts into his first game with the Blue Jackets, everything Dante Fabbro could still feel on his body hurt.
His legs burned. His lungs heaved. Turning to his new defensive partner, Zach Werenski, Fabbro told the NHL’s leader in average ice time that, well, he might be cooked after sitting out as a healthy scratch for all but two games with the Nashville Predators in the preceding three weeks.
“I always joke with him about his first game in Seattle,” Werenski said. “I knew he hadn’t played for a while, and he looked at me on the second or third shift and was like, ‘Man, my legs hurt.’ I looked over (at the coaches) and I was like, ‘He’s not gonna make it.’ I’m always joking with him about that because … look how far we’ve come.”
It’s been quite a journey for Fabbro, who re-signed with the Blue Jackets this past summer to remain Werenski’s partner on the right side of their top defensive pairing.
After playing the first seven years of his NHL career with the Predators, who selected him 17th overall in 2016, Fabbro was pushed outside of the Predators’ main playing group last season. He played the first four games, sat for three, played two more — including one against the Blue Jackets — and sat back down four more times before being placed on waivers.
The Predators probably wanted to sneak him through for an AHL assignment, but the Jackets didn’t let that happen.
They snapped Fabbro up Nov. 10, 2024, as a possible right-handed option to play with Werenski. It couldn’t have worked out better, giving Werenski a steady partner for the first time in three years and Fabbro a new lease on his NHL career.
It’s fitting that almost a full year later they’ll hit the ice together in the Blue Jackets’ opener Oct. 9 in Nashville.
“For a second there with Nashville, it wasn’t looking good,” Fabbro said. “I wasn’t playing, and it seemed like my NHL days were starting to slim down a bit. Obviously, push comes to shove, I got put on waivers and Columbus took a chance on me.”
It has certainly paid off.
Fabbro posted the best numbers of his NHL career in his first season playing with Werenski, who put together his own career-best effort to finish second in voting for the Norris Trophy awarded to the league’s best defenseman.
“When I first got here, I couldn’t believe how good (Werenski) was,” Fabbro said. “It seemed like he’d step on the ice, and he’d have four points a night, and I just couldn’t believe it. I was very fortunate to be put in that position, but I knew the kind of player I was, too, and how I wanted to go about my business, coming in here and proving a point, and nothing changes this year. I still have a chip on my shoulder and want to play hard.”
He might have a chip on each shoulder against Nashville in his first return to Bridgestone Arena since getting a phone call telling him he’d been claimed by Columbus and had just a couple hours to pack for a flight to Seattle. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind ever since, but one that Fabbro’s eager to continue.
“It was a crazy few days there when everything kind of happened with Nashville and then going to Columbus,” he said. “But I’ve told people this lots of times. It was probably the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Blue Jackets reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com and @BrianHedger.bsky.social