Mikey Anderson has the team's highest even strength goal differential at a +7. He and Bjornfot are two solid defenders, but if we had a strong defense, they'd be on the second and third pairs. Doughty can still hang as a first pairing defender, we just need a top-pairing left-shot guy to lead the defense. Chychrun, Provorov, or even Hanifin comes to mind, but who knows. Walker needs to go, Edler needs to go, even Roy needs to go. I just can't get over how much better I think our defense would look if we rolled this out:
Provorov - Doughty
Anderson - Spence
Bjornfot - Clarke
I'm not sure what exactly it would take, but at this point I'd certainly trade Kempe if it solved the defense. Fiala basically took Kempe's spot and his mojo. With Byfield back up, one of Kempe or Iafallo is expendable, and I think Kempe will have a lot more trade value.
Fiala - Kopitar - Kaliyev
Moore - Danault - Arvidsson
Iafallo - Byfield - Vilardi
Lemieux - Lizotte - Grundstrom
Provorov - Doughty
Anderson - Spence
Bjornfot - Clarke