Sutter talked a lot about how much the entire defense changed over. Gio played all 56 games last year, Valimaki played 49, Nesterov and Stone were 38 and 21, respectively.
Kylington played 8 last year. So Kylington steps up to become a very effective top 4 guy this year, and Gudbranson and Zadorov exceeding expectations. That's quite a transformation in personnel and overall performance.
Then you consider that Andersson and Hanifin have both taken another step this year, and Tanev continues to outperform his contract.
Sutter's right. That's a huge transformation on the blue line and a big part of the team's success this year. Gio leaving really is just a small part of that bigger story.
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