Rescue witch hazel

My sister is selling her home. My son redid her front yard for the sale. One of the rejects was a very ill-pruned witch hazel, which I took home as a rescue plant. Initially, I think I will just wait and see what parts are still alive. It does have some buds coming on (we moved it in early December) and I assume it will have a slow start this year and need a lot of pampering. Her place is also about 1-2 weeks warmer than me, so the change in temp may also affect the little guy. Any suggestions for remedial pruning? It is about 4 feet tall, with some of the main trunks hacked off, new shoots coming up from the base. Kind of a mess.

Get the suckers off, for sure. You want to keep those down.

Katie, so far not very many suckers. I'm taking a 'wait and see' tactic for awhile just to see what is alive and what is dead.

Most witch hazels are grafted, and one of mine has sent some very strong suckers up from right under the graft. I have to prune my Arnold's promise fairly aggressively, and have learned that it only blooms on wood that is over two years old. This makes it pretty easy for me to maintain now as I have shaped it to the size and form that I like in that space, and just keep pruning off anything new. Sounds like you will need to let your's recover a bit before you can figure out what form it wants to take. At least you think you will get a few flowers as that will motivate you to tend it carefully and see what it does for you next year!