After earning seven out of ten points against quality opponents the Penguins will be back in action tonight kicking off a three-game road trip. Tonight, they visit the Nashville Predators with the St. Louis Blues on Thursday and Arizona Coyotes on Saturday.
While the games are important the focal point remains the trade deadline. What can Ron Hextall do to improve this roster? The core pieces are good enough to make a run. Will there be enough support to get through a very tough Eastern Conference?
Things with Vancouver seem to have hit a snag. If the rumors are true that they want John Marino or Marcus Pettersson I have to believe there’s a path somewhere to make a deal happen. The Rutherford factor of him fixating on players to acquire and his desire for familiarity are definitely in play.
But what if Marino and Pettersson aren’t the defenseman that should be in the conversation? It will be an unpopular opinion, but maybe Brian Dumoulin should be part of this. He has been dinged up for a few years now and he turned 30 earlier this year. Defenseman who lack an offensive pulse usually do not age well. Dumoulin has another year left on his deal and the Penguins should not be the team to give him his next contract.
There’s also the fact Dumoulin has been stapled to Kris Letang forever, so while he’s been a fine player in his own right, you can’t ignore the bump he’s gotten forever in that role. Here’s an updated look at Dumoulin
If you were to entertain moving Dumoulin you would be betting the drastic slide in WAR is closer to what he’s going to be than the 2020-21 season. Personally, I think it will be somewhere in the middle of 2020-21 and 2021-22, but closer to the 2021-22 season.
There aren’t many average players in the league who has gotten better quality of teammate consistently over the years than Dumoulin. Getting Sidney Crosby and his wingers along with Letang is a good gig if you can get it.
The one time he was away from Letang for an extended time was the 2017 playoffs when he was on the top pairing with Ron Hainsey and the Penguins still managed to win it all. This of course caused many to galaxy brain their way into conversations that Kris Letang wasn’t actually important to the team. Never mind that the Dumoulin-Hainsey pairing got absolutely caved in. He was set up to fail with the kind of deployment he was given in the playoff run, but the tema won and it is the kind of thing that elevates Dumoulin’s perceived value to many of the hockey men running teams in the league. I strongly believe his perceived value is higher than his actual value at the moment. As a team that is what you want when trading away players.
It reminds me years ago when I said the team should have traded Brooks Orpik when he was a pending UFA. His on-ice results weren’t all that great and were very replaceable. The environment in the league during that time period might have landed the Penguins a first-round pick or a really decent prospect. The team of course was never going to make a move like that and Orpik played out his contract playing forgettable hockey
The situations aren’t identical. Brian Dumoulin is a better player than Orpik was. I don’t feel like the Penguins have to trade him. I just feel like he isn’t an untouchable asset and his name will catch the attention of other general managers around the league. Just look at the returns for players like David Savard and Rasmus Ristolainen in recent years. Look at the way Ben Chariot is being talked about heading into the deadline. You don’t think Brian Dumoulin would catch that kind of buzz or more?
When I look at the Penguins roster I don’t think Brian Dumoulin is an irreplaceable player, anymore. You have to give to get if you are searching for scoring help in this league. Dumoulin and a 1st round pick is probably going to get you into a lot of conversations the team otherwise wouldn’t be in.
Recently, Mike Sullivan slotted Dumoulin on the second pairing with Kris Letang in the lineup. I can’t think of too many times this has happened during Sullivan’s tenure as head coach for the team. He elected to place Mike Matheson in Dumoulin’s normal spot. Matheson, to his credit, has had a really good season. His minutes have been sheltered. His results are undeniable
What will his results look like in an elevated role? In the past they haven’t looked quite like this. It might still be worth seeing a larger sample with Letang because Dumoulin isn’t exactly lighting it up in the role this year. If Matheson can blend in it would make Dumoulin more expendable.
However, I don’t expect the Penguins to ever entertain this, whether now or in the offseason. Perhaps they should.
Thanks for reading!
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