Kempny wasn't particularly impressive this year (none of our D was) but losing him definitely hurts our depth. I feel pretty comfortable with the likes of Carlson, Orlov, Niskanen, Djoos, Jensen, Orpik as our 6 guys (despite how much some of them suck, we could do much worse). But with Kempny in the mix, we'd have either Djoos, Orpik, or someone else on the outside looking in, and that's a pretty good problem to have. Say what you will about some of our guys as #5 or #6 D, but you have to admit everybody is at the very minimum a luxury to have as a #7D.
If we run into more injury troubles, we'd have to dip into Lewington or Siegs, which I'm not sure I feel comfortable with in the playoffs. Regular season? Who gives a shit. Regular season don't matter. We had an invalid as a coach and we still managed 4th in the league. I'm not sweating a scrubby bottom pairing for the regular season next year. But in the playoffs every inch and every advantage counts.