Edmonton is a franchise which has been mired in success for most of it's history. They came out of next season looking to have a deep roster, hopefully icing 3 rookie skaters with their entire D-core returning. Unfortunately, with Brady McIntyre and Tor Tuck opting for free agency they ended up in a spot where their defensive depth is called into question. Scholz, Toner, Finn-Rhys, and Tanner are all good to great defencemen with 1000+ TPE, however Wolfe and Zhernov, two IA's sitting on the bottom pairing, are both sitting below 500 TPE. The path to fixing this is fairly straightforward--Axel Foley. It's somewhat awkward to proclaim myself the cure, however the current Edmonton d-core is being overworked due to an unreliable bottom pairing that accounts for 10 out of 60 minutes spent on the ice. Currently with Carolina in the J, Edmonton's bottom pairing could improve greatly with Foley stepping into the ring. At 600+ TPE currently, there is a chance he could end up reaching 800 prior to the start of next season. That would bring more dependability to the bottom of the lineup to munch minutes, potentially allowing more offensive minds to rest during the penalty kill and have more energy for, well, offense. Along with this the free agent market needs to be a focus. Everyone knows that there is a lack of defencemen to fill out the bottom of lineups, so getting the 500-600 IA's signed, or even attempting a reunion with some d-men who left in the close past, would improve the bottom pairing drastically.