After striking out on the first day of free agency in the 2024 offseason in which Anaheim Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek stated his desire to add a top-six right-shot forward and a top-four right-shot defenseman, he pivoted on July 2, when he acquired veteran two-time Stanley Cup winning defenseman Brian Dumoulin from the Seattle Kraken in exchange for a fourth-round pick.
How Do the Ducks Solve Their Defensive Logjam?
Dumoulin’s contract is set to expire on July 1, 2025, so the prevailing thought surrounding the move was that he’d become a desired trade chip at the 2025 deadline. We’ve now reached the week of the NHL trade deadline, scheduled for Friday at noon PST, and the Ducks have a .500 record (26-26-7) while six points out of the second wild card spot in the Western Conference playoff race. Their playoff hopes are hanging by a thread, but they’re still alive.
While his presence on the left side of the Ducks blueline has created a logjam that leaves either Pavel Mintyukov or Olen Zellweger to serve as a healthy scratch every night, he’s otherwise fit like a glove in Anaheim, assuming a leadership role while playing 19:49 tough minutes per night and leading Ducks defensemen in penalty kill TOI.
The Ducks have two pivotal games before Friday’s trade deadline, and it’s decision time: Trade Dumoulin, extend him, or stand pat and treat him as an “own rental” for the final 23 games of the season, risking the potential of losing him for nothing on July 1.
Eric Stephens of the Athletic spoke with Dumoulin on Thursday who revealed he and the organization, through his agent Lewis Gross, have engaged in contract extension talks.
“I’ve come to find out and come to learn going to different organizations now that the grass isn’t always greener in different places and stuff like that,” Dumoulin said. “We’ve had a discussion. Basically, through my agent, we expressed that this is a place that we want to be. I believe in this group, and I believe in the things that we’re doing. I really, really like this group a lot.”
The Ducks are making the strides in the standings they set out to take before the season began and are still in the playoff race despite their odds of playing postseason hockey ever-dwindling. The potential of a Dumoulin extension can be seen as a double-edged sword. On one hand, rewarding the team for the hard work they’ve put in to remain relevant in the standings can provide a positive impact throughout the roster. On the other hand, the Ducks have been reluctant to play one of their talented, young, left-shot defensemen on their off-side so a valuable piece of the organization’s future is consistently missing out on precious playing time and learning experiences, potentially stunting their ultimate development.
These next two games before the trade deadline may be “make or break” for the Ducks' season. The Ducks can go in several different directions with their approach to Friday’s deadline, but the fate of Brian Dumoulin will be especially telling in regards to Verbeek’s overall thoughts on the team he’s put together and how they’ve performed this season.
It would seem like something has to give at some point. Will we see the most-anticipated outcome of a trade sending Dumoulin to a contending team, will we see Verbeek move on from one of his ultra-talented left-shot defensemen in a trade to acquire talent at a different position, or will we see the deadline pass without a solution to the logjam?
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