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Looking forward to having THREE legitimate top-4D men in the lineup.
I think it is actually better than that once Hughes is back in the lineup, but then I think a good part of the problem with the defence this season has been people being forced to play above their level.
Obviously Hughes-Hronek is not a problem as first pair.
Right now we have MPet and Myers playing together as second pair and I think that should also work fine. As I see the problem with Myers sometimes this year it is that he's been paired with Soucy, leaving us a #4 (Myers, who if necessary can still pass as a #3 part time) and a #5 (Soucy, who can pass for a #4 for a #4 some of the time), leaving a pair not quite good enough to play the minutes they've had to play, putting more pressure on both players which leads to more mistakes than they'd expect to make if carrying less responsibility and so under less pressure.
Getting someone on the 2nd pair capable of being a solid, steady #2/3 playing with Myers seems to me to take the pressure off Myers and make that a pretty good 2nd pair. Both can contribute to moving the puck out of their zone, both can contribute a little offensively and both can defend-it is Pettersson's strength and Myers can be good at it when not stuck with too much responsibility. I think that will be a good 2nd pair if they're kept together.
There are options even this season for the 3rd pair which I think can leave the 3rd pair decent for limited minutes and responsibility. We've got Soucy, Forbort, possibly EP25 and while some just want him gone I think last season Juulsen showed that given limited responsibility he can perform adequately on the 3rd pair.
That still leaves us with Willander, Kudryavtsev and Mynio as prospects, as well as some other minor league vets that are or may become capable of filling in as depth when necessary.
It seems to me that the acquisition of M Pettersson is enough to repair the construction of the defence to the extent that it could be a relative strength.