Arniel has directly said they are trying to get Stanley up to a top 6 role this season.
I'm not confident he'll get there this year, or ever. Playoff hockey is a lot faster and Stanley still struggles with pace in the regular season. 3LD isn't that hard a position to fill via trade, so I hope the Jets make a realistic assessment of Stanley before risking another playoff season with a D that was deemed unplayable last playoff, even with two LD injured.
With Stanley the other problem is penalties. The Jets can't afford to put Central opponents on the PP often in the playoffs.
It's hard to assess Stanley's rookie season, when he got a full 8 games in the playoffs, because he only played 6 teams that year, at least half of which were not great quality, and the whole bubble and taxi squad were unique experiences.
Last playoff he made a nice outlet pass that led to Schmidt's goal. Tied game 4 up at 1-1. Schmidtty -5 in 3 games was a product of poor defending, and it extended not only to Stanley but Samberg's -7 results, who also got caught in Neal Pionk's game 5 yips.
I don't know if us fans can build the perfect team out of all the pieces here. The defensive transition that comes with Chynoweth as a coach has led to more speed, and it's certainly a team desire to play Logan with a faster skater to cover for him.
Where it all settles by playoff time still has to go through the rigours of 46 more games, and so far the pace of losing one d-man every couple of weeks.
I saw Ryan Lindgren posted on the main boards, and that's a guy who has gone through some playoff battles, I'd see a good fit there, if he came to play.
I hope that Arniel as a veteran coach sees toughness as something that is a regular season necessity but when the games aren't for points, but survival, skill and compete are the top qualities.
If the 6, 7, 8 and 9 defensemen all get experience this year, that's 4 depth players who have experience playing against the best competition so far with varying results in the team's success, and should be better for it, when their number gets called.