I think he's of the same mold, and early in the year we are seeing that Dillon and Pionk are the most porous of pairs, I think having a guy who Pionk trains offseason with might be the solution. But it's possible to keep him, just wouldn't bring Stats back, who for me, is a playoff hero.
Conceivably forward group could be:
Connor-Dubois-Ehlers
Perfetti-Scheif-Wheeler
Harkins-Lowry-? (this is where I think Appleton replaces Copp)
Vesalainen-Gustafsson-Svetchnikov?
And that's still pretty good, and I think the number would work, but the margin would be thin, again.
If Samberg has a spot to win it's Dillon's in my opion. Whereas Heinola would replace Schmidt, but by how well Josh has played this year, that's a tougher one to convince me of a seamless transition.