The middle of our defense is the problem. Clifton is overpaid, but he's fine for a #6/#7 PK specialist.
Byram is closer to Clifton and Joki than he is to being a legit top 4 Dman. Joki is below replacement level and was in our top 4 all season.
Samuelsson is ideally a #5 when the lineup is fully healthy, but he's not awful as a #4 comparing his xGAR to other teams 4th best xGAR.
We're missing 2 legit top 4 D-men.
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Compare our xGAR defense chart to some playoff teams. Even a team like Ottawa with a lot of questions and holes in there defense still has 1 more legit top 4 guy than us.
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There are only a handful of teams with a worse defensive lineup than us this season: ANA, CGY, SEA.
We're worse than CHI, SJ, NSH or PHI.