Meet the New Devil: Brian Dumoulin
New Jersey added a veteran left-handed defenseman in exchange for a second-round pick and prospect Herman Träff on Thursday afternoon.
Early Thursday afternoon, the New Jersey Devils sent out a 2025 conditional second-round pick1 and 2024 third-round selection Herman Träff in exchange for Anaheim Ducks left-handed defenseman Brian Dumoulin.
My initial reaction to the acquisition was pretty negative, and I do still generally hold that outlook, though I suppose it depends on what the Devils have in store today. Dumoulin is a pure rental, so sending out just a second-rounder in my opinion was a mistake. Then, there’s Herman Träff, who is quietly a very good prospect for the Devils and has a legitimate chance at becoming an NHL third-liner. I’m a big fan of Träff’s game and think it translates well to the big leagues.
My assumption is that, with Dumoulin being 50% retained, there’s a big move going down. I could be wrong, but maybe one of Šimon Nemec, Seamus Casey, or Johnathan Kovacevic are going to get shipped out. It’s also a clear signal that the Devils are still going for it, which is objectively the right call.
All that aside, though, let’s get into the type of player the Devils are getting for the remainder of the 2024-25 season:
No Offense This Season
This season, Dumoulin has been a pretty clear offensive black hole (outside of one aspect of his game which I’ll touch on later). He doesn’t provide much in the way of maintaining puck possessions through either his passing abilities (all of which are inferior to average) and isn’t a particularly aggressive pincher.
In terms of defensemen, he’s somewhat active on the breakout, and will occasionally jump into an odd-man rush if the opportunity is present, but there isn’t anything this season to brag about in terms of his in-zone, cyclic play. In years past, he has been a solid offensive presence, though.
In particular, before this season Dumoulin had been a solid contributor at finding one-timer chances for his teammates. Despite whatever the stats say, he does have solid vision when passing and generally — again, before this season — was a plus in a playmaking sense. Dumoulin has taken a clear step back in this regard in 2024-25, but perhaps in a more sheltered role where he isn’t consistently hemmed into his own zone he’ll have some more success.
He does have a bit of a penchant for occasional boneheaded decisions with the puck, though. He likes his no-look passes, and let’s be real for a second — Dumoulin is not skilled enough to be doing that all the time. When he makes an aggressive pinch, it’s not the pinch itself that hurts him, but what he does afterward; he will legitimately try to attempt a no-look pass into open space and give the puck right up 20% of the time. I do wonder if that issue becomes more apparent on a better team that generally has more offensive zone possession time.
Active In-Zone Defender & Breakout Specialist
Contrary to popular belief, Dumoulin is not going to contribute to trap hockey. He isn’t a particularly aggressive defender in the neutral zone and is generally not that great at zone entry defense. He gets targeted more than average and doesn’t do a particularly great job at disallowing the attackers from actually entering the zone. What he is, though, is very active while defending in the zone.
Dumoulin, when presented with an opportunity to engage in a board battle, will do so. He does come out with the puck more often than not in these situations, and is an aggressively high-risk high-reward passer once he gains possession of the puck after a battle. At times, this is successful — I would even argue the majority of his breakout passes are successful — but he does turn the puck over from these attempts quite a bit regardless simply by proxy of how often he attempts them. Dumoulin almost has that Damon Severson-esque quality of having noticeably bad defensive plays despite generally being fine in that regard.
For a 6’4, ~210 pound defenseman, Dumoulin isn’t particularly physical. There’s a bit of a stigma around him that he is a physical presence, which is something I found out is perpetuated by the Kool-Aid crew on Devils’ Twitter, but that’s just outright incorrect. He doesn’t use his body to seal off attackers, instead relying on stick checking (which he isn’t particularly great at).
I do agree with the synopsis that the Devils needed a more high-risk, high-reward breakout defenseman who will contribute more to rush offense. I think that’s been a clear detractant from Sheldon Keefe’s system as opposed to Lindy Ruff’s, and Dumoulin has been in the league long enough where a new system doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to completely change his playstyle from being that high-risk, high-reward guy.
Overall, I’m not quite as mad as I was yesterday about this trade, but it’s still a perplexingly high amount to ship out for an expiring UFA who hasn’t been all that great this season. If it were the Dumoulin from three, four years ago, sure, but it’s not. His playstyle hasn’t necessarily aged super well with age, though there are still things he does well that the Devils don’t have much of in their defense complexion. He’s likely looking at a third-pair role with New Jersey, and he’ll probably contribute at a higher level in a more sheltered role — he’s largely struggled in his difficult role this season.
The condition is simple — the Ducks get the earlier of the Winnipeg or Edmonton second-rounders.