Moose re-sign Dawson Barteaux to one-year deal through 2026-27

Manitoba kept its blue line familiar on July 14, re-signing Dawson Barteaux to a one-year contract through the 2026-27 season. The move gives the Moose a right-shot defenseman they already know well, and it keeps a Foxwarren, Manitoba, product in the room for a fourth season in Winnipeg.

Barteaux is 26 and just finished a 2025-26 season in which he scored one goal in 32 games for Manitoba. He also played two Calder Cup Playoff games as the Moose opened the Central Division First Round against Milwaukee at Canada Life Centre, a best-of-three series that began April 22. For a club that spent the spring managing a playoff roster and the summer sorting out its back end, bringing back a known defender gives the coaching staff one less variable to solve.

The case for the deal sits in the track record. Barteaux has 175 career American Hockey League games and 34 points, with eight goals and 26 assists, split between Manitoba and the Texas Stars. He has also logged 54 career ECHL points, nine goals and 45 assists, in 108 games with Norfolk and Idaho. That included a nine-point run in 20 games with Norfolk, production that showed he can do more than just eat minutes when he drops to a lower level.

He was also more productive in Manitoba not long ago. The Moose noted he had 19 points in 45 games with the club in 2023-24, along with 13 points in 15 ECHL games with Idaho. That kind of range matters for a defenseman who is not being asked to be a headline piece, but to hold together pairings, help stabilize special teams depth and give younger blueliners a steadier runway behind him.

Barteaux’s path has taken time. Dallas selected him in the sixth round, 168th overall, in the 2018 NHL Draft, and the 6-foot-2, 192-pound defender has spent years working through the pro pipeline rather than leaping through it. Manitoba’s decision to keep him around fits the pattern of a team that values familiarity on the back end, especially when a roster is trying to start the season with fewer unknowns and more players who already understand the system.