Dumba brings physical presence

Matt Dumba experienced a first in his still-brief tenure as a defenseman with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday.

Consecutive games.

Dumba was in the lineup for Monday’s 6-3 home win against the St. Louis Blues. The right-hander predominantly played on the left side of the third pairing with rookie Harrison Brunicke, also a right shot.

The 31-year-old Dumba followed that up Tuesday by dressing for a 3-2 road shootout loss against the rival Philadelphia Flyers. In that contest, Dumba operated on the right side of the third pairing with left-handed rookie Owen Pickering.

A frequent healthy scratch this season, Dumba, a 13-year veteran, skated in only his second game of the season Saturday, a 5-4 home shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.

His most notable moment in that game — and the season, really — came midway through the first period when he leveled Blue Jackets forward Boone Jenner with a shoulder check in the slot of the Penguins zone. Jenner (6-foot-2, 204 pounds) popped up quickly and then challenged Dumba (6-foot, 191 pounds), who accepted the invitation and recorded the Penguins’ first fighting major of 2025-26.

While there are more relevant ways to gauge a player’s impact on a game and his place in the lineup, that physical sequence registered with coach Dan Muse.

“You just start with the hit, then he follows it up,” Muse said. “He gets challenged, and he fights. Those are things that can swing momentum in a game. Just the hit alone. You want that to carry on there and impact the next couple of shifts. I wouldn’t say it was just that. I thought Matt played a solid game there.”

The Penguins acquired Dumba — and most importantly, his $3.75 million salary cap hit — on July 10 in a trade that also included a second-round draft pick in 2028 from the Dallas Stars, who were looking to clear money from the payroll.

Before Thursday’s road game against the Wild, Dumba had appeared in four of a possible 11 games this season and had recorded one assist while averaging 14 minutes, 51 seconds of ice time.

The seventh overall selection in the 2012 NHL Draft by the Minnesota Wild, Dumba was once a top-pairing defenseman in the NHL who was in the lineup virtually every night.

Today, he is a reserve looking for ways to stay on the ice. Hits like the one he placed on Jenner can be an avenue toward those ambitions.

“When you’re coming in and out of the lineup, especially if you look at his situation, it hasn’t been something that he’s been used to his entire career,” Muse said. “It is sometimes a little bit different if you’re a young player who is coming up for the first time, and you’re coming in and out. You’re talking about a guy who has been in this league for a long time, who has had success in this league and who is now in a situation that is a little bit unique to him.

“He’s done a good job there of making sure that he’s been prepared. He comes back in, which is a tough task, but he was looking for ways to be able to create momentum for the team, which is what we want all the players doing. Every player has a different way of doing that. In that game, I think that was one of the ways that he was looking to try to create momentum for us.”

Note: Penguins defensive prospect Peyton Kettles was traded by his junior team in the Western Hockey League. The Swift Current Broncos sent Kettles, 18, to the Kelowna Rockets. The Penguins selected the right-handed Kettles (6-foot-5, 194 pounds) in the second round (No. 39 overall) of the NHL Draft in June.