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The tank is on in Arizona as former Oilers’ stopper Devan Dubnyk dealt to desperate Wild

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Have pads, will travel.

Just when Edmonton Oilers fans thought we might have seen the last of Devan Dubnyk sticking it to his old team this season, the peripatetic puckstopper was traded today from Arizona Coyotes to Minnesota Wild for the low, low price of a third-round pick.

This move defines the cut-off line between playoff pretender and no-longer-even-pretending. The Coyotes have joined the latter camp, the Wild are desperately hanging on to the former status despite just a 5-point difference between the two clubs in the Western Conference standings:

2015-01-14 wild card

The Wild are in the throes of a brutal stretch that has seen them win just 2 of their past 14 games to fall a dangerous 8 points below the playoff cut line, currently occupied by Vancouver Canucks. Goaltending has been a big part of the problem, with the Wild allowing 58 goals in those 14 games, including 3+ goals against in all 12 of the losses. A save percentage of .866 during that span has been a major culprit. Nominal starter Darcy Kuemper (.902 Sv%) is on injured reserve, while 36-year-old Niklas Backstrom (.887) was described by Minnesota Tribute reporter Michael Russo as “a trampoline” during last night’s 7-2 loss in Pittsburgh. Third stringer John Curry, who came in to mop up, has played just 8 NHL games at age 30, posting an uninspiring career Sv% of just .879. Meanwhile, star-crossed Josh Harding has seen his latest comeback put on hold after just two games with Iowa Wild, his future now in serious doubt. With his high-priced team floundering and Coach Mike Yeo’s future in doubt, Minnesota GM Chuck Fletcher was clearly in desperation mode to stop the bleeding.

His counterpart Don Maloney seemingly harbours no illusions about this year. Rightfully so; not only is his squad a further 5 points in arrears, but the goal differential column shows the stark truth that the Desert Dogs and the Oilers are the truly uncompetitive teams in the West. Much as the Oilers did a year ago when they sent Ilya Bryzgalov to the goaltending-starved Wild for a fourth rounder, Maloney has cashed his summer UFA signing for a decent draft pick. This despite Dubnyk seriously outperforming ‘yotes starter Mike Smith, who has suffered his own season from hell in 2014-15.

Smith’s lousy performance notwithstanding, the Coyotes brass has gave him a vote of confidence a couple weeks back and a further one today with the disposition of Dubnyk. In so doing, Arizona has grabbed a future asset while taking a step backward in the here and now. Indeed, without Dubnyk’s 9-5-2 record this season, the ‘yotes might already be a front-runner in the Connor McDavid sweepstakes. It now appears the Desert Dogs are joining this tank battle in a serious way.

For his part, Dubnyk joins his fifth NHL organization inside of a calendar year, after spending nearly a decade with the Oilers, the team that initially drafted him. After years of gradually developing into a NHL-calibre starter, Dubnyk experienced his own season from hell in 2013-14 where his career very nearly foundered on the rocks.

Pencilled in as Oilers’ starting goaltender by a doubtful Craig “If You Have To Ask The Question” MacTavish, Dubnyk’s game went south in a big way right out of the gate behind Dallas Eakins’ ill-fated Swarm defence. The big stopper soon found himself on shaky ground, and eventually on his way out of the organization when the team signed free agent Bryzgalov, then traded for Ben Scrivens.

Related post: What on earth happened to Devan Dubnyk?

Around this time last year (January 16), the Oilers dealt their struggling starter to Nashville Predators in return for grinder Matt Hendricks. Dubnyk had a failed two-game trial with the Predators, during which time then-coach Barry Trotz famously concluded:

“We got Devan from Edmonton, and what we realized very quickly was that Devan has a lot of… I’ll say bad habits he’s picked up this year. Devan’s first start wasn’t great. I don’t want to throw him under the bus. He’s got to be a lot better. He’s a veteran hockey player in the National Hockey League. I felt that three of the five goals were very stoppable in this league. It wasn’t a great game for him, but at the same time it was his first game, first trade, new city, so we’re getting used to him and he’s getting used to us.”

The Preds didn’t spend long getting used to Dubnyk, giving him just one more game before shipping him out to Montreal Canadiens at the trade deadline. Dubnyk never did suit up for the Habs, assuming the #4 role on the organizational depth chart behind Carey Price, Peter Budaj, and Dustin Tokarski. Even when Price got hurt in the conference finals DD never got a sniff, even as a backup. Moreover, he performed poorly for Montreal’s farm team Hamilton Bulldogs, posting a crummy .893 save percentage in 8 appearances.

An unrestricted free agent this past summer, Dubnyk signed a one-year, $800,000 contract with the Coyotes on July 1, then went about the process of reconstructing his game under the watchful eye of ‘yotes goaltending coach Sean Burke. DD bounced back brilliantly with the Desert Dogs, posting a .916 save percentage that’s on par with the rate he had established in three full NHL seasons in Edmonton before things went south last season.

DD career

That save percentage must look mighty fine to Yeo and Fletcher, who have seen Kuemper and Backstrom struggle to the 35th and 40th-place ranking out of 42 qualified goalies this year. No reason to think that Dubnyk won’t be given every chance to seize the crease in Minny, who aren’t paying a combined cap hit of $34 million to the the quintet of Ryan Suter, Zach Parise, Mikko Koivu, Thomas Vanek, and Jason Pominville with the intention of missing the playoffs. The heat will be on DD immediately to right the ship at the back end and get that squad back on the winning track.

Chances are he’ll get several more cracks at his original NHL team in the process. Dubnyk has already faced the Oil three times this season, holding them to a single goal each time and posting 3 wins as the Coyotes swept the season series 5 games to 0. Now he joins a Minnesota squad who have yet to face Edmonton all year with all 3 meetings scheduled between now and the end of February. Those are games that could go a long way towards getting the Wild back in the hunt.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and friends will be seeing more of Devan Dubnyk this season.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and friends will be seeing more of Devan Dubnyk this season.

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