The Minnesota Wild have agreed to trade Devan Dubnyk and a conditional 2022 7th round draft pick to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for a 2022 fifth-round pick. The Wild will retain 50 percent of Dubnyk’s salary as part of the deal.
Change in goal: #mnwild to send longtime No. 1 netminder Devan Dubnyk to #sjsharks for draft pick
STORY and DETAILS of the return, the salary retention and what’s next>>>https://t.co/MA4GwEOrD8
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) October 5, 2020
Minnesota Wild Trade Devan Dubnyk to the San Jose Sharks
The Wild completed a trade on Monday with the Sharks. The Sharks acquire goaltender Devan Dubnyk and gave up a fifth-round pick in the 2022 NHL draft.
In Dubnyk, the Sharks get a solid starting goalie option. This season, Dubnyk played 30 games, starting 28 of them. He posted a miserable 3.35 goals allowed average and a weak .890 save percentage over those games, with a record of 12 W-15 L-2 OTL. He saved -16.23 goals above expected (meaning he let in more than expected based on shot quality), and only about a third of his starts were “quality starts”. This is a shocking dropoff from last season when Dubnyk played very well: a 2.54 GAA and .913 save percentage over 66 starts, going 31 W- 28 L- 6 OTL. In that season, Dubnyk saved 6.18 goals above expected and over half of his starts were “quality starts”. Over his 11 year career, Dubnyk has played for the Wild, Edmonton Oilers, Nashville Predators, and Arizona Coyotes. He’s played 520 games, posting an impressive 247 W- 195 L- 52 OTL. In that time frame, he had a 2.58 GAA and a .915 save percentage.
Looking to the Future
The Sharks were in desperate need of a goaltender before this trade. Martin Jones and Aaron Dell were one of the worst goalie tandems in the league. Neither of them had below a 3.00 GAA, and Dell was the only one with an above .900 save percentage. Bringing in Dubnyk, even with a down year this past season, is a good move. In his 12th year in the league, Dubnyk is not the most capable of starting goaltenders, but he is a massive upgrade from Dell and Jones. The Sharks will likely move one of those goaltenders now that they have Dubnyk. However, with Jones’ massive contract, he will be difficult to buy out or trade. Moving Dell, even though he is the better of the two, is the likely move for San Jose. For the Wild, this means Alex Stalock is now their starting goaltender. He is unproven and could massively backfire on the Wild if he underperforms.
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