We kick off this week with another player that has moved on to another team this season. The second of Julien BriseBois’ big deadline acquisitions. Matt Dumba was picked up due in large part to Mikhail Sergachev’s injury. He didn’t quite fill the skates offensively, but did throw a bunch of hits.

The Basics

Name: Matt Dumba

Position: Defense

Counting Stats with Lightning: 18 Games, 0 Goals, 2 Assists, 18:39 TOI

Extra Stats (5v5) With Lightning: 45.80 CF%, 44.74 SF%, 37.50 GF%, 43.23 xGF%, 45.10 HDCF%, .890 On-ice Save Percentage, 0.78 iXG

2023-24 Contract: Dumba had signed a one-year, $3 million contract with Arizona.

Contract Status: Dumba signed a two-year, $7.5 million contract ($3.75 million AAV) with the Dallas Stars.

The Charts

The Review

Matt Dumba’s Tampa Bay Lightning career was nothing if not brief. He appeared in 23 total games (18 regular season, 5 playoff) for the Bolts before moving on to the Dallas Stars in free agency. It was, for the most part, an unspectacular tenure as he posted just 2 points, both assists, while averaging just under 19 minutes a game.

Those minutes played were his biggest asset as it allowed Coach Cooper to plug in a veteran player into the Mikhail Sergachev-sized hole in his line-up down the stretch. After filling that spot with Emil Lilleberg, Haydn Fleury, and others, Dumba gave the coach a little more experience. He also gave them some physicality with 9.29 hits per 60 minutes and took away some shooting lanes as he blocked 4.13 shots per 60.

Other than that, well, there wasn’t much. It was a weird pick-up from the start as Julien BriseBois brought in a player that had struggled a bit in his own zone when the Lightning were already well stocked in that department. There was some hope that Dumba might add a little offense from the backend, but that didn’t really materialize over the course of his time with the club.

In our breakdown of the acquisition we stated,

“Signing Matt Dumba was a solid, if unspectacular, move by Julien BriseBois. He’s in a position to help the Lightning ..and if he doesn’t there is no long term commitment and the price was minimal.”

The price, a 5th-round pick in 2027, was indeed minimal, and had it been more, perhaps the fanbase would have been a little more disgruntled with the move. It didn’t look like a good fit at the time the move was made, and it played out as such as the season went along. Dumba struggled with turnovers as he averaged 2.27 giveaways per 60 according to Natural Stat Trick as well as taking penalties. His 1.65 minor penalties per 60 was second on the team behind Austin Watson.

As the player card from All Three Zones indicates, Dumba struggled in his own zone in allowing chances and getting the puck out cleanly. He had been alright at successfully exiting the puck when he was in Arizona, but that just didn’t carry over when he moved to Tampa.

The effort was there from Dumba all season long, but his time with the Bolts just seemed off. Mr. BriseBois tried to fix a problem with a hammer instead of a pair of needle-nosed pliers and it just didn’t work out. Had the results been better, perhaps the Bolts would have tried to re-sign him instead of facilitating a trade for Ryan McDonagh. Instead, they let the 29-year-old walk in free agency where Dallas picked him up in order to shore up their defense after an exodus of veteran players.