The Anaheim Ducks acquired defenseman Brian Dumoulin from the Seattle Kraken today, in exchange for a fourth-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.
Dumoulin is coming off his first year away from the Pittsburgh Penguins, where he managed 16 points in 80 games with the Seattle Kraken. He averaged 17 minutes per game this season, and has one year remaining on his contract at a $3.15 million cap hit.
While the Ducks did need an addition to their defense group, it’s a little questionable as to whether Dumoulin really helps. His game has seen a bit of a decline over recent years, and he’s seen his ice time drop in three straight seasons, including a drop of over 3:30 per game last season upon joining Seattle. It’s a deal that mirrors the Ilya Lyubushkin trade last summer, acquiring a defenseman for short-term use in exchange for a mid-round pick. But this time, it almost looks like the Ducks may have wanted to get a bigger name, but struck out and settled for Dumoulin today.
I suppose that’s better than the alternative, compared to if the team made limited efforts to make an addition. But still, with a massive amount of cap space and holes in the roster, it’s pretty disappointing to see no major additions.
The team was extremely quiet in free agency. The Ducks did re-sign a few of their own players, with one-year deals for Isac Lundestrom ($1.5M cap hit), Urho Vaakanainen ($1.1M cap hit) and Brett Leason ($1.05M cap hit), while letting Max Jones and Bo Groulx head elsewhere, and also not issuing qualifying offers to Brayden Tracey and Gustav Lindstrom. The Ducks also signed Jansen Harkins to a two-year contract today ($787,500 cap hit).
But the Ducks need some forward momentum, and while they’ll be counting on their young talent to take steps, not making some larger external additions is a little puzzling. That also wasn’t the only recent decision from Pat Verbeek that warranted a bit of controversy, with the selection of Beckett Sennecke at third overall coming out of nowhere. The team has made some surprising picks in recent years with Mason McTavish and Leo Carlsson which have looked good on him, but this is even more off the board.
In addition to Sennecke, along with Stian Solberg at 23rd overall, the team added seven other players in rounds 2-7 in the draft as well: Lucas Pettersson (35th OA), Maxim Masse (66th OA), Ethan Procyszyn (68th OA), Tarin Smith (79th OA), Alexandre Blais (100th OA), Austin Burnevik (182nd OA) and Darels Uljanskis (215th OA).
But we’ll see where the Ducks’ offseason goes from here. Hopefully there’s more to come, because if the team heads into the year with their roster as constructed, they’re likely setting themselves up for another tough year.
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