The Predators might find themselves forced to make room in the lineup for talented defenseman Spencer Stastney, who has been impressive in Milwaukee.

-- Photo By Tony Gutierrez | Ap

After a remarkably healthy season, the Predators have been plagued lately by the injury bug, and it has bitten defensemen exclusively. Nashville has lost fewer than 100-man games due to illness or injury so far this season, which is a low number when compared to just about all the other NHL teams.

But since mid-March, blue liners Dante Fabbro, Spencer Stastney, Jeremy Lauzon and Alexandre Carrier have all spent time out of the lineup due to injury. Thankfully for the Predators, most of those injuries were fairly minor in nature, and the players affected have already returned to the lineup.

Fabbro’s seven-game absence due to an upper-body injury was the longest any were sidelined.

If all are healthy, it will be interesting to see how the Predators’ defensemen are deployed in the remaining regular season games and into the playoffs. With eight defensemen on the roster and six who are in the lineup each night, head coach Andrew Brunette has some decisions to make when it comes time to fill out the lineup card.

Stastney is the most interesting to watch. Recalled before Nashville’s March 13 game at Winnipeg, Stastney sustained an upper-body injury in that game and then missed the next five.

An extremely gifted skater, Stastney has played just a few games at the NHL level between last season and the current one, but his talent may be too much to overlook when it comes time to decide who is in the playoff games and who gets scratched.

At 24, Stastney is not overly young by NHL standards age-wise. He played four seasons of college hockey at Notre Dame before turning professional, signing with the Predators, who selected him in the fifth round of the draft in 2018.

At the time of his most recent recall to Nashville this season, Stastney had scored five goals and added 15 assists in 44 AHL games played in Milwaukee. He also boasted a +27 plus/minus rating. Plus/minus measures the number of goals scored when a player is on the ice for either team at 5-n-5, and while there is considerable debate in the hockey community about how reflective that particular statistic is of a player’s effectiveness, being on the ice for 27 more goals that your team scores compared to the opponents is impressive.

Granted, what Stastney has done at the NHL level is a small sample size, but he passes the eye test for someone whose minor league career should be finished. Stastney will likely get a long look over the regular season’s final week-plus to see whether he is playoff-ready as the Predators look to the postseason.

Should Stastney have his name placed on the lineup card, the player who isn’t will be a big decision. Those decisions could be opponent dependent or could be made from game-to-game based on how players are playing. Stay tuned.