I'd argue you leave Hughes and Nemec to marinate fully in the lower leagues, be as patient as you like with their development, get plenty of AHL time. No need to rush them up. Chychrun is a top pairing D on most teams in the league, why push him down to 3rd pairing and rush Hughes?

Seems a tad much for a LHD the Devils don't really need.
Siegenthaler, Hughes and Okhotiuk / Smith should be more than good enough of a left side to compete right out of the gate in 23/24.

Hughes would already have had 2 years of development outside the NHL, I think he'd be more than ready to play with Marino on the Devils 2nd pair come October 2023.

Nemec should definitely start out in the minors next season.
I'd much rather play Walsh, Mukhammadulin or Brendan Smith as the 3RHD over Nemec initially, but Nemec could definitely earn himself a spot on the NHL roster as the season progresses however.

Agree here. Can also play Bahl - Okhotiuk as a pair (they have experience playing together all the back to juniors, and in Utica).

But without a Graves extension (and without Chychrun), it would probably be...

Siegenthaler -- Hamilton ("Ham & Swiss")
Hughes -- Marino
Bahl/Smith/Okhotiuk -- Walsh/McCarthy/Mukhamadullin

With Graves extension...

Siegenthaler -- Hamilton
Graves -- Marino
Bahl/Smith/Okhotiuk -- Hughes

Preserving that 2nd slide year for Nemec could be huge down the road.

I just don’t think the devils need Chychrun they have a stacked D already and they still have Top d prospects coming like like Nemec and Hughes, but I wouldn’t mind them adding crouse

Chychrun is a wholly unnecessary luxury for you guys, in my opinion. You've gotten fine results so far with Graves there and re-signing him doesn't cost you anything other than money. And you can get Henrique with 50% retention and a 2023 third for the 2023 first and probably get Crouse for the two defense prospects and Foote, thereby keeping Holtz and the two 2024 draft picks.