The Stars are trading defenseman Matt Dumba and their 2028 second-round pick to the Penguins in exchange for defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok, reports Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Both teams have since announced the trade, which doesn’t include any salary retention.
Completing the deal will make the Stars cap-compliant for the 2025-26 season. Even if Dallas has Kolyachonok on its opening night roster, he costs the league minimum $775K against the cap.
That’s $2.975MM less than Dumba’s $3.75MM cap hit, since Pittsburgh takes on the totality of his salary with no retention on Dallas’ part. That savings puts Dallas, which is currently $1.79MM above the upper limit, back under the cap.
The Stars signed Dumba to a two-year, $7.5MM contract in free agency last summer, viewed as a risky commitment at the time after the 6’1″ righty had just 12 points and a -18 rating in 76 games with the Coyotes and Lightning the year prior. The fears around the contract were quickly realized. Dumba, who turns 31 later this month, had negative possession impacts everywhere he was deployed and was out of the lineup entirely by the time the postseason rolled around.
Dumba played 63 games for the Stars last season, averaging just 15:18 per game with a 1-9–10 scoring line. He logged a minus-five rating in what amounted to his lowest usage since his rookie campaign and was a healthy scratch for all 18 playoff games.
The best years of Dumba’s NHL career came as a top-pairing piece for the Wild, who drafted him No. 7 overall in 2012. He remained there through the beginning of his steep decline in the early 2020s, leaving for Arizona in 2023 in free agency on a one-year contract. After failing to re-establish his value there, he was flipped to the Lightning at the trade deadline for two late-round picks and finished out the year as a bottom-pairing piece in Tampa before signing in Dallas in the offseason.
Dumba’s best season came back in 2017-18 as a 23-year-old, when he finished 19th in the league in scoring among defensemen with 50 points in 82 games and tied for 10th with 14 goals. He also had 12 goals and 22 points in just 32 games the following year before an upper-body injury ended his season. His offensive production never recovered, averaging just 22.4 points per 82 games since returning.
It’s unclear if Dumba will have much of a role in Pittsburgh’s lineup next season. They have three right-shot defenders ahead of him on the depth chart in Connor Clifton, Erik Karlsson, and Kris Letang, although Karlsson is well-known trade bait this summer. If he remains in the picture, though, Dumba could start the season in the press box – or even on waivers and buried in the minors – unless someone shifts to their offside.
Dumba’s price tag is exceedingly steep for the No. 6/7/8 defender he is at this stage of his career, one Dallas simply couldn’t afford to shoulder with their cap crunch after extending Mikko Rantanen and retaining UFAs Jamie Benn and Matt Duchene. They part with a second-round pick to wipe his deal off the books one year early – a steep price considering the market for cap dumps this summer, although they do well in acquiring a serviceable depth piece in Kolyachonok. They’re now without a pick before the third round in 2028.
The Penguins already had a bit of a crunch among depth defensemen after signing Alexander Alexeyev, Caleb Jones, and Parker Wotherspoon in free agency. It isn’t surprising to see them unwilling to take on a defenseman without moving one out.
They picked up Kolyachonok, a 24-year-old 6’2″ lefty with some untapped two-way potential, off waivers from Utah in February last season. He didn’t get into much game action, though, recording two assists and a minus-five rating in 12 appearances while averaging 14:20 per game. There wasn’t going to be much opportunity for him in Pittsburgh with their aforementioned additions and younger, higher-profile names like Owen Pickering pushing for more NHL ice time.
Kolyachonok, a second-rounder in 2019, has 14 points in 74 career NHL games with a minus-seven rating and 72 hits. He’ll presumably compete with veteran Alexander Petrovic to exit training camp as the extra defenseman on the NHL roster.
Sean Shapiro of DLLS Sports was first to report the Stars and Penguins were working on a trade centered around Dumba and Kolyachonok.
Image courtesy of Jerome Miron-Imagn Images.
Okay Pittsburgh, we get it, you’re tanking, jeez!
Why?
I assume because we are getting a first, a second or a young player plus Dumba…otherwise, yeah, why?
Why not? Gotta lose to have good chance for first pick. They are going to suck anyway may as well suck as much as possible
Makes more sense with the 2nd but 2028?
Wonder what Dubas will flip him for at the deadline
A 2nd and I would assume they hope dumba bounces back and they can get another 2nd for him at deadline not a terrible trade/risk really
Plus he’s a RHD who can play on the second pair after we trade Karlsson.
Never mind, just looked at how bad he’s become
This right here is why the draft should be 32 lottery balls with equal chances or at least much closer odds for top picks. Teams in all sports throw away years at a time purposefully putting a terrible team on the ice or field to draft high for a few years. The fans of those team don’t show up for years at a time, and fans of teams that are trying to be as good as possible are stuck watching terribly lopsided games way too often.
So, you want a system where Florida ends up with Schaefer or McKenna?
If you want to watch all the best players go to the already best teams, we have college sports for that.
The draft is the lifeblood of pro sports.
Wish Bill and Gary realized that.
No, the best teams wouldn’t end up with McKenna and Shaef, that would be a reverse order draft not an equal odds draft.
If a teams ends up getting lucky every now and then, so be it. In my view the perfect compromise would be all non-playoff teams with the exact same odds for the top 16 picks. Then all playoff teams with the same odds for the next 16 picks.
Watching Chicago, San Jose, Detroit among other teams put out absolute garbage teams is terrible sports.
Same goes for the Rockies, White Sox, Pirates and Nationals in recent memory. You absolutely should not be rewarded for purposefully putting out a terrible team.
Imagine being replaced by Alex Petrovic in the playoffs, Dumba’s career has seemingly fallin’ off a cliff.
Penguins going to join the group of teams that have risen then successfully tanked & started up the ladder again while Canucks continue to swirl clockwise in the mediocre toilet…
“The best years of Dumba’s NHL career came as a top-pairing piece for the Wild, who drafted him No. 7 overall in 2012.”
When Ray Shero stepped to the podium to make the No. 8 overall pick in the 2012 draft, me and everyone in the crowd thought we were getting Filip Forsberg. Crowdsourcing wins again.
On his worst day, Dumba is still better than Derrick Pouliot.
Should have taken Trouba and maybe we don’t lose to the NYR all those years he brained Sid in the playoffs.
PPG Arena is just 137 miles from Pegula Ice Arena on the campus of Penn State. If the Sabers have their typical “hot start, fast fade” could we see a glorious triangle of misery between Buffalo and Pittsburgh meeting ironically in Happy Valley?
I sincerely hope that after the lottery Gavin McKenna has to drive 138 miles or less to his new pro home.
oh, Jim Nil is already putting his name back in the GM of the Year hat?!?!
Tough having to give away a 2nd round pick, but it had to be done to clear up some cap space.
Win on both sides, right? Dallas clears a useless player and cap space, Pittsburgh gets a decent future asset and just has to pay Dumba for a year.
Is two thirds really worth $3.75m?
I see what you did there
So glad to see Dumba flame out
How dare your doubt the Crock from Brock!
Pittsburgh loves washed up bums. He’ll fit right in on that roster!
I feel for Pittsburgh fan what exactly is team management vision here with this trade?! It’s obvious Dumba has been on sharp decline for the last couple of years now.
Pens are using cap space to acquire draft picks. Dumba’s only value is to force Dallas to pay up. He is incidental to Pittsburgh’s on-ice product.
Surprising to see the GM of the year give up on last year’s big summer signing so fast. Could of had Nate Schmidt for less. But according to the voters, a lesser GM got him instead.
It’s about the sizzle, not the steak, unfortunately. Nill got the bigger names, Zito got the right ones.
I never understood what was so good about this guy. I think he was average at best. He had a big mouth and his play was nowhere near as good as people made it seem.