“Doomo” Chats With Kraken Media
The newest member of the Seattle Kraken blueline corps Brian Dumoulin jumped on a zoom call with local media on Thursday.
“I’m the type of guy who’s going to play as well as he can in the defensive zone, break pucks out as quickly as I can, be a good puck mover and also read off guys,” Dumoulin said Thursday morning. “It just seems like the communication between their (Kraken) players and how their system (works) and how they play makes it easy for a defenseman to read, so if I can continue to read plays like I do and play solid defensively and play quick and get out of our D-zone, that’s what I’m looking to bring to the team.
“Also try to chip in offensively and just move the puck and create lanes and make plays for guys,” he added.
That’s a mouthful of exactly what the Kraken are looking for from a veteran who brings two Stanley Cup wins to the table.
“First thing that stands out is … great pro,” Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol told us on July 2nd. “Veteran D in this league, he’s been through it, he’s another guy that we can add into that dressing room. There’s nothing that we’re going to see this coming year that he hasn’t been through already, and more importantly he’s a good player. I think he’s going to add to the D-corps. His skill sets fit very well with the make-up of our group.”
Dumoulin signed for two years at $3.15-million per season on July 1st, NHL “free agent frenzy” day.
Kraken Connection
Kraken GM Ron Francis reminded us on July 1st that he had worked in player development for the Carolina Hurricanes back in 2009 when the D-man was drafted by that club in the 2nd-round of the NHL Draft. Dumoulin, who played three years at Boston College, remembers those days quite well.
“That was big, he was a guy when I was at BC, he would come and I would go to his hotel and we’d sit in the lobby and we’d watch video of some guys in the NHL, some of my game, and we just had really good communication between the both of us and I could tell what an amazing person he was,” Dumoulin stated. “It wasn’t just about hockey, we’d sit there and talk about life and obviously I got to talk to him before I signed.”
Dumoulin never played a game for the Hurricanes. His rights were moved to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the deal that sent future Carolina captain Jordan Staal to Raleigh in June of 2012.
During his 546 game NHL career Dumoulin has tallied 139 points from the back-end and helped the Penguins win two Stanley Cups.
Exciting New Scene
Over the course of the last two seasons, Dumoulin and the Penguins made two trips into Seattle, losing both times.
The first visit involved the Kraken’s first ever overtime win, 2-1 on January 22nd, 2022 with Adam Larsson getting the game winner.
In season two on November 5th, 2022, the Climate Pledge Arena crowd had the opportunity to see Sidney Crosby tally a goal and add an assist, but even better for them, they watched Brandon Tanev score the game winner for the Kraken with 3-and-a-half minutes remaining in the 3rd period.
“We were able to practice at the practice facility that Seattle just built and you could tell that they spared no expense, they were really trying to make it a great place to train and a great place to be if you were a player,” Dumoulin recalled. “The arena itself is beautiful, it was a really, really cool atmosphere, you could see how excited the fans were about their team. You could see it from the playoff run – I watched a lot of the playoffs – you could just feel the energy when the games were in Seattle.”
Dumoulin’s home debut in the deep happens October 17th against the Colorado Avalanche.
Coming shortly: Kailer Yamamoto’s “Dream Come True”
