I think this has been the case all along. I just think there's some shotty reporting going on by this Alex Daughtery character. Paper move - no way a team enters the season with only 6D for no reason.
Question I have is if that's the case does Del Gaizo sit or is he on the 3rd pair left side?
Skjei - Josi
Lauzon - Carrier
Del Gaizo - Schenn
Fabbro?
To me, Fabbro is the 3rd-best defenseman on our roster. (This is NOT a ringing endorsement of our d-corps!) Now, how do you deploy him? I like putting him on the 1st-pair with Josi. That re-establishes one of the best pairings in franchise history. Can Fabbro keep it up? Why not, he was a top young prospect, certainly with better credentials than Lauzon or Carrier. Sometimes we just have to get out of our own way and let players play?
Fabrro has been criminally underrated by a lot of people, including within our own organization, for a while. No matter what position you take on Fabbro vs. Carrier, I think EVERYBODY has to agree that they are both better than Schenn, right?
When I look at keeping a #7D around, then to me it's more to offset the fact that Schenn can't take a regular shift every night anymore, nothing to do with Fabbro.