Hockey is a very fast game played with a hard rubber puck, blades on every players' feet, physicality, and fighting. There are going to be injuries. No team can avoid them, but some teams are fortunate to be hit less in a season than others. That is the case for the Nashville Predators this season.
The Predators have been the third healthiest team this season behind the St. Louis Blues and the Edmonton Oilers and there are two things we can take from this.
A good amount of the team success can be attributed to many regulars staying in the lineup and contributing each night. It allows players to form chemistry, which they definitely have, and get comfortable in their roles. This isn't to say that there isn't internal competition for playing time, because there has been battles all season which pushes the team in the right direction, especially after the trade deadline brought in some new faces.
You can't argue the success the Predators have had because there have been no serious injuries and the team has played nearly 40% of their games with a healthy lineup. But on the other hand, there have been very limited opportunities for others and younger players in the system.
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Mark Jankowski and Spencer Stastney are the only players who have broken through and are currently holding a spot on the team after starting the season in the AHL. Players like Philip Tomasino, Juuso Parssinen, Liam Foudy, Egor Afanasyev, Marc Del Gaizo, and Yaroslav Askarov have all played some games for the Predators this season, but are in Milwaukee right now. Then there is Cody Glass, Jaret Anderson-Dolan, Tyson Barrie, and Dante Fabbro who are out of the lineup right now.
If the Predators weren't as healthy as they have been, more than one of these players would have seen significantly more playing time in the NHL and some might surprise you. Injuries and opportunity is how teams find hidden gems like Nashville did last season in Tommy Novak and Luke Evangelista.
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