Albizia - will a branch become a stem or trunk?

I have a 3 year old albizia, about 1.5m tall that had a lot of the bark eaten by deer in the spring.  There were just 2 thin strips of bark left, still attached top and bottom but no longer connected to the trunk, over about 30cm. My attempts to reattach and reinforce them have been fruitless and the tree is clearly slowly dying above the damage. 
There is one happy and healthy branch below the damage and I am wondering if this will become a leader if encouraged more vertically, or if a new shoot will come from the junction of the trunk and this branch?
Poor thing was just about to flower for the first time!
Thanks all