I think it's fair to say that they now have an NHL caliber defense. There are no tweeners in their top 6: Hughes, Hronek, Cole, Soucy, Zadorov, Myers.
So, they're in a position where, when healthy, they can ice a competitive defense with a guy like Myers not being asked to do too much.
Injuries have exposed a lack of NHL caliber depth. Guys like Juulsen and Friedman are 7th D men at best. Guys like Hirose and McWard need to learn to play at the NHL level.
For next year, they need to find two D men to bridge for two years until Willander, Pettersson, and others are ready to step in. Myers will be gone after this year. Cole will be too unless he wants to stick it out for another couple of years for near league minimum. He's played well this year but he will be 35 in a couple of months.
Could two of McWard, Hirose, Johansson, Woo, Wolanin be those guys? Possibly. But they could also be a repeat of trying to fit two tweeners into the roster on a regular basis.
With all this in mind they should be trying to find a top 4 RHD to play with Hughes and a bottom pairing guy to play with Soucy. The seven below give some depth when injuries hit. Both Soucy and Bear can move up the line-up if necessary.
Hughes - Tanev
Zadorov - Hronek
Soucy - Bear
Cole
Tanev turns 34 in less than 3 weeks. Does he have enough left to be that 2 year bridge? I don't know.
All in all it's nice to be talking about a solid NHL D core.