Quoting: Garak
Exactly what I was thinking. Once the Yin (Hamilton) to his Yang is back full time, Siegs will be more than fine, and he is super affordable. One bad year, in a year that the whole team had a pretty bad year, shouldn't be enough to jump ship on a player. Now, if he has Hamilton back next year and still sucks, I guess NJD should maybe consider a move, but not selling low.
Also replacing him with ethan Edwards would be a disaster.
NJDs D really struggled this year, but frankly should be (hopefully) able to improve with 0 personel changes.
Hamilton back will be massive
Luke and Nemec development into year 2 should be very significant.
Marino and Siegs return to previous form.
If things go right this could become an elite unit without any changes. Imo you can't bank on it all, so I would be bringing in an LD to make Luke and Siegs life easier and so we aren't so reliant on improvement for them.
Kevin Bahl could become useful, but I wouldn't bank on it. Keep him as a 7D tho.
Smith has to go.
My guy to mention has always been marcus pettersson. If we could bring him in it would be perfect
Siegs-Hamilton: Yin and Yang, have proven success
Pettersson-Marino: shutdown pair, 2000+ minutes of success together in pitt and both have improved since then.
Luke-Nemec: have had success when paired together this year, pair of the future, let them absolutely feast on some easier competition.
Imo that can be as good (ideally) as just about any defensive unit in hockey.