Continuing the look at the Kings defensemen from this last season with Brian Dumoulin, who completed his first campaign in Los Angeles. Dumoulin was signed on July 1 as the Kings took a veteran-heavy approach to the backend of their roster. Those signings came with a lot of ups and downs and Dumoulin was no exception. Plan A did not work as anticipated but Dumoulin offered a lot more to the Kings whenever they pivoted to Plan B. A look at his campaign below.
Brian Dumoulin
LAK Statline – 82 games played, 2 goals, 15 assists, -1 rating, 22 penalty minutes
LAK Playoff Statline – 4 games played, 0 goals, 0 assists, -1 rating, 2 penalty minutes
NHL Possession Metrics (Relative To Kings) – CF% – 51.3% (-1.3%), SCF% – 51.7% (-0.9%), HDCF% – 50.9% (-3.3%)
Trending Up – Brian Dumoulin and Cody Ceci often get talked about together, because they were signed on the same day last summer. Their profiles also trend similarly in one way, in that both players had substantially better numbers playing apart than together, specifically in Dumoulin’s case. When playing with any other partner, Dumoulin had an on-ice goal share above 63 percent, which would be the best on the Kings blueline over the course of the full season. When playing apart from Ceci, Dumoulin was on the ice for 19 goals for, compared to just 11 against. Ceci’s numbers improved as well. The pair did not work together, but there were some encouraging signs for Dumoulin when deployed elsewhere in the lineup.
When you drill into Dumoulin’s numbers a bit deeper, he was an effective player around the bluelines, when it comes to controlled zone exits and controlled zone entries. Per SportLOGIQ, he ranked third among Kings defensemen in total controlled zone entries. The Kings recorded a shot on net on 42.2 percent of his entries and a scoring chance on 24.4 percent of those entries, leading Los Angeles blueliners in both metrics. The numbers were very similar for Dumoulin on controlled zone exits. He ranked third among Kings defensemen in total number of controlled exits and at 86.2 percent, he led the team in percentage of plays with a successful play after. Being good around the bluelines is important and the numbers show it as an area in which Dumoulin excelled.
While he wasn’t used as frequently as some of his teammates, Dumoulin was an effective penalty killer last season. In just over 100 minutes, Dumoulin was on the ice for 4.27 goals against per/60, the best clip on the Kings among the 14 players with double-digit shorthanded minutes last season. Of the 116 defensemen around the league to log at least 100 minutes on the penalty kill, Dumoulin ranked fourth-best in terms of goals against, per/60. One of the few bright spots when it came to last season’s penalty-killing performance.
Trending Down – Ultimately, while you can pull splits apart, the Dumoulin/Ceci pairing was used regularly and it was extremely ineffective together. The above separates out Dumoulin’s numbers when playing with different partners, but that was the most common pairing for both players and it did not lead to the results the Kings had hoped for over the summer. There were 46 defensive pairs around the NHL this season with at least 500 minutes together and the Dumoulin/Ceci duo ranked fifth from the bottom in goal share and third from the bottom in goals for when on the ice together, both on a per/60 basis. There are a lot of numbers you can pull for this section but the easiest to show are that the Dumoulin/Ceci pairing gave up 33 goals when on the ice together, compared to just 21 goals scored. It just was not good enough, especially when considering the players who left Los Angeles last summer.
The inverse to Dumoulin’s success on controlled zone exits is that he also led the Kings in total turnovers. Dumoulin’s 94 giveaways per NHL.com were the most on the team among all skaters. Same goes among team defensemen on a per/60 basis, a number which ranked 170th of the 187 NHL defensemen to play at least 50 games this season. I’ve always found giveaways to be a stat that varying building-to-building around the league, but comparing teammates is fair game, with that variable removed. Not a category you want to be at the top of and Dumoulin was for the Kings this season.
Lastly, this is a bullet that will show up often when it comes to these blueline evaluations, but Dumoulin was a part of a group of defensemen who did not offer enough puck movement and offensive production. The Kings, overall, ranked 32nd in goals from defensemen and 29th in points. In many ways, that shouldn’t be on Dumoulin, because he has never been that player. However, it was a huge roadblock for the Kings throughout the season, for a team that had too much of the same thing.
2026-27 Status –Dumoulin has two seasons remaining on the three-year contract he signed with the Kings last summer. As noted above, there were ups and downs to his first season in Los Angeles and the Kings have publicly stated that changes are being explored as it comes to the blueline. Who exactly that impacts remains to be seen. Dumoulin showed stretches of effective play, especially when he was bumped off the third pair. I think he could continue to be an effective defenseman here, in a different role, but we’ll see how things go for Ken Holland this summer.
