The Ducks have acquired defenseman Brian Dumoulin from the Seattle Kraken in exchange for a fourth-round selection in the 2026 draft, both teams confirmed Tuesday.
Dumoulin, 32, chipped in 16 points in 80 games for Seattle and finished as a plus player for the fifth time in six seasons despite a disappointing campaign overall for the Kraken. A year earlier, he contributed a career-high 25 points to the Pittsburgh Penguins, with whom he played eight full seasons and won Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017.
The 2009 Carolina Hurricanes draft pick and Boston College alumnus adds another New England connection to the Ducks as a Maine native who also played junior hockey in New Hampshire.
He has one year remaining on his contract at $3.15 million, a potentially solid value for a player who has performed effectively in two different settings and has considerable playoff experience. His acquisition cost indicates that, much like Ilya Lyubushkin last year, he could be flipped for a profit at the trade deadline if Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek so chooses. Dumoulin’s contract does have a modified no-trade clause that will allow him to submit a no-trade list of 10 teams, per CapFriendly.
Dumoulin is a two-way blue-liner with an emphasis on his own end. At 6-foot-4 and 207 pounds, he has prototypical size for a rearguard. Perhaps the one question mark in this acquisition is how another left-handed shot fits into the Ducks’ defense corps.
Eternally tenured veteran Cam Fowler, lottery pick Pavel Mintyukov and promising aspirant Olen Zellweger all roamed the left side last year for the Ducks. So, too, did Urho Vaakanainen, whom the club re-signed Monday, and Jackson LaCombe, to whom they extended a qualifying offer Sunday.
In addition to their acquisition of Dumoulin, the Ducks signed another former Penguin, industrious center Jansen Harkins. The 27-year-old had four points in 45 games for Pittsburgh last year in a checking role. His most notable NHL campaign came in 21-22 when he played a career-high 77 games in which he scored 13 points for the Winnipeg Jets.
