This question came up and I suggested this was the answer.

Attacker rolls 3 hits.

Defender rolls: Blank, Surge, Defend. Spend Dodge Token to cancel 1 hit, activate Deflect (which allows me to surge for Defense) and then use my defense die to block other hit. Bounce a hit back via Deflect.

The question was can this be done? I see not reason why not, but the answer was questioned and I said I would ask the hive mind.

to clarify you must spend dodges before rolling defence dice, which removes a hit and then in this instance with only 2 hits remaining you only roll 2 defence dice.

I had the same issue when I first started, Legion dodge tokens are not like X-wing evade tokens if that's where your line of thought is coming from.

You can also spend dodge tokens if there are not hits to cancle to enable deflect. If there are hits they are cancled.