One Year Later: The Second Brian Dumoulin Trade

By Thomas Harrington

One year ago today, the Anaheim Ducks traded defenseman Brian Dumoulin to the New Jersey Devils for forward prospect Herman Traff and a 2025 conditional second round draft pick. New Jersey had two second round picks, Edmonton’s and Winnipeg’s. The Ducks ended up receiving Winnipeg’s pick and chose defenseman Lasse Boelius 60th overall. Anaheim retained 50% of Dumoulin’s salary.

Anaheim had originally acquired Dumoulin from the Seattle Kraken the previous summer for a fourth round draft pick in 2026. He played in 61 games for the Ducks and scored two goals and 16 points. Despite being traded right before the trade deadline, he still finished tied for fourth among defensemen scoring on Anaheim. Dumoulin averaged 19:48 of ice time per game, good for fifth among Anaheim defensemen, and only four seconds fewer on average than the captain, Radko Gudas. Dumoulin didn’t see much time on the powerplay, but did average 2:20 while Anaheim was shorthanded, third among Ducks defensemen.

The Devils had drafted Traff in the third round of the 2024 NHL Draft, 91st overall. He’s a tall prospect with a physical aspect to his game. At the time of the trade, he had played in the SHL, HockeyAllsvenskan, and J20 Nationell leagues.

New Jersey was looking for a playoff-tested, veteran defenseman to upgrade their blueline. Dumoulin had played in 81 career playoff games over a decade with Pittsburgh and checked the boxes that they were looking for heading into the postseason. The Devils were also dealing with various injury issues on defense at the time of the trade, as both Jonas Siegenthaler and Dougie Hamilton weren’t in their lineup.

The Ducks were going to miss the playoffs again and were looking to get value for their pending unrestricted free agents. Also, by moving Dumoulin, it opened up more playing time for both Olen Zellweger and Pavel Mintyukov. The Ducks had scratched both numerous times throughout the season because of how many veteran defensemen Anaheim had. By moving Dumoulin, and Cam Fowler earlier in the season, Anaheim’s younger defensemen were given significantly more opportunity.

With the Devils, Dumoulin played in 19 games to end the season and scored a goal and six points. New Jersey faced off against the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round and lost in five games. Dumoulin played in all five games and was scoreless. He actually led the team in average ice time per game, playing an average of 29:21 across those five games. He was also second on the team in average shorthanded ice time by playing an average of 4:31 per game. Dumoulin left New Jersey as a free agent and signed with the Los Angeles Kings over the summer.

This season, Traff has played in the HockeyAllsvenskan, where he’s put together a very nice season, scoring 23 goals and 41 points in 50 games. He’s currently unsigned, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Ducks sign him after the season is over so he can come to North America next year. Boelius has spent the season in the Liiga, where he’s scored a goal and eight points in 40 games. He also played for Team Finland where he scored two goals and seven points in seven games.

A year later and this deal, especially when combined with the trade to acquire Dumoulin, is a definite win for the Ducks. They acquired Dumoulin for a fourth round draft pick, and then traded him several months later for a second round pick and solid prospect. By getting that second round pick, it also recouped the loss of Anaheim’s own second round pick that had been traded to Philadelphia as part of the Cutter Gauthier deal. For the Devils, Dumoulin did help stabilize their backend, but he wasn’t able to lead them on a deep postseason run. Dumoulin is a good enough fourth or fifth defenseman, but him leading the team in ice time really shows the problems New Jersey was having against Carolina.

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March 6th, 2026