John Marino’s arrival has helped steady the backend without Sergachev. The defenseman — who was traded to Utah this summer from the New Jersey Devils — made his team debut on Jan. 14 and has played in four games. The 27-year-old missed training camp and the first half of the year after undergoing lower-back surgery in October.

As mentioned, Kesselring took advantage of the chance to prove himself as a legitimate top-four defenseman; Jaxson Stauber showed that he can play in the NHL; Olli Määttä earned a spot on Finland’s 4 Nations Face-Off team — a chance he may not have gotten if he’d stayed in Detroit.