Has Devan Dubnyk saved the Minnesota Wild’s season?
Before the Minnesota Wild acquired Devan Dubnyk from the Phoenix Coyotes, They were struggling with goal tending. Niklas Backstrom and Darcy Kuemper did not live up to what they expected them to for the season, and Josh Harding was injured right before the season started. On January 14th, the Minnesota Wild traded the Phoenix Coyotes a 2015 third round draft pick in exchange for Devan Dubnyk. This may have been the smartest move that they have made thus this season.
Before Dubnyk put on the Wild jersey, the 2004 first round draft pick had lost some of his confidence. Last season, Dubnyk was traded by his team that he had spent his whole career with, the Edmonton Oilers, to the Nashville Predators. With the Oilers, he posted a 3.36 GAA, and with the Predators, it moved to a worse 4.35 GAA. Then, he was sent to play in the American Hockey League with the Hamilton Bulldogs. During the offseason, he then signed a contract worth $800,000 with the Arizona Coyotes, taking a huge pay cut.
Since Devan Dubnyk has been in Minnesota, he has completely turned the Wild’s recent record around, as he has won six out of the seven games that he has started in. This has left him with a GAA of 2.35 and save percentage of 92.3%. Also, to make his games with the Minnesota Wild even more impressive, he has posted a total of three shutouts in the eight games he has played in. The most recent shutout he had was versus the Chicago Blackhawks, in the Wild’s 3-0 win on February 3rd.
The Wild are still going to have to play well the rest of the season because they are still in tenth place in the Western Conference, and they need to get to eighth place. But, with Dubnyk being on a hot streak, they could very well be right where they need to be shortly. Their next game is on Saturday versus their rival, the Colorado Avalanche, so fans will be able to see if Dubnyk will continue his hot streak in an exciting game. He may have just given the Wild the spark that they have been looking for all season.
[…] Minnesota Wild: There might be other goalies for the Minnesota Wild (Darcy Kuemper and Niklas Backstrom), but Devan Dubnyk is the best. When he was in the Edmonton Oilers system, it seemed as if the Oilers messed up his confidence in being a goalie by the end of his five years in Edmonton. He was ‘mentored‘ by Nikolai Khabibulin and Ilya Bryzgalov and bounced to Nashville where he lost the starter/backup job to Carter Hutton after Pekka Rinne was injured in 2014 and then was traded for magic beans for future considerations to the Montreal Canadiens, who sent him to their AHL team, even when they needed goal support in the playoffs with a Carey Price injury. At the start of this season, he signed a 1-year contract with the Arizona Coyotes where he allowed former NHL goalie Sean Burke to tweak his style. On Jan. 15th he was traded to the Wild and is an extremely large reason why the Wild are in the playoffs. […]