The fight for the final defense spot is most likely between Brendan Smith or Libor Hajek, especially since Yegor Rykov isn’t with the club for the playoff push. The competition is to see who gets the spot with Jacob Trouba on what will presumably be the top pairing at even strength. It’s certainly a tall order to be given that kind of workload in a playoff situation.
Hajek spent a good amount of time on the top pair earlier in the season, but it was an experiment that ended poorly.