Pittsburgh Penguins Re-sign Defenceman Brian Dumoulin

The Pittsburgh Penguins have re-signed defenceman Brian Dumoulin.

The Pittsburgh Penguins signed Brian Dumoulin to a six-year contract, the club announced Monday via general manager Jim Rutherford.

Dumoulin, 25, was a restricted free agent at the end of this past season. The Penguins made it a priority to keep Dumoulin, even taking him to arbitration to settle on a new deal. In the end, the six-year contract worth $24.6 million will pay him about $4.1 million per year. Quite the jump from his previous $2.7 million dollar contract over three years.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Dumoulin’s Fit

This signing was a key one moving forward. The Penguins are already tight on cap space and just lost key defencemen to free agency in Ron Hainsey and Trevor Daley. Losing Dumoulin, a great young defenceman with high potential, was not an option.

Dumoulin fits perfectly in the Penguins system moving froward, just like he always has. He is a capable second or third pairing defenceman who still has lots of room and time to grow. The Penguins will be looking for him to take an even bigger role this season with this new contract, especially if we are unable to make up for our other losses on the blue line.

Going Forward

The Penguins spent a good portion of their cap space on Dumoulin, but it had to be done. According to Cap Friendly, the Penguins are now left with $6.28 million of cap space.

With RFA’s like Conor Sheary still waiting for a contract, and not to mention the number of holes we need to still fill, the Penguins may need to start wheeling and dealing to free up some space.

It’s going to be tough but it can only improve from here.