Ducks' Dumoulin Becoming Early Trade Candidate

The Anaheim Ducks are once again in the bottom group of the NHL and it is unsurprisingly another rebuilding year. The best thing for the Ducks this season is to get another high draft pick to add to their group and sell off players on expiring contracts before the deadline.

The selling for the Ducks doesn't have to wait. They have a solid veteran defenseman in Brian Dumoulin in the last year of his deal that could be helpful to multiple teams already. Anaheim has all three retention spots, so they have ample room to retain cap on any deal. Dumoulin's cap hit is $3.15 million AAV.

The Ducks' defense is way too full of left-shot defensemen, Dumoulin being one of them. He is playing on his off-side, so that does expand the Ducks' options when trying to deal him to a contender this season.

On a bad team like the Ducks, Dumoulin has a goals for % of 52.6 and anything better than 50% is good. He is a former two-time Stanley Cup winner and that's always something teams look for if they can pick up a veteran with that experience for a playoff run.

If the Ducks were to trade Dumoulin to a team in need well before the trade deadline, that is the best situation for the team. Players like Cam Fowler, Pavel Mintyukov, Jackson LaCombe, Olen Zellweger, and Urho Vaakanainen all shoot left and it frees up an extra spot for the younger players to play more and play bigger minutes.

Anaheim will very likely be a seller as they are headed that direction pretty quickly already. Sometimes it's better to sell early before the market gets flooded and a team can't get a trade off. We'll have to wait on this situation to progress, but it's a missed opportunity if Dumoulin isn't traded to a contender before the trade deadline in 2025.