{"id":473127,"date":"2025-08-03T16:24:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T20:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=473127"},"modified":"2025-08-03T16:24:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T20:24:07","slug":"14-year-veteran-goaltender-hangs-up-the-dobby-mask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/08\/03\/14-year-veteran-goaltender-hangs-up-the-dobby-mask\/","title":{"rendered":"14-Year Veteran Goaltender Hangs Up the Dobby Mask"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/khudoan01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-03_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anton Khudobin<\/a> is retiring after a 14-year NHL career. The 39-year old spent last season in the All-Russian Hockey League. Khudobin last played in the NHL during the 2022-23 season, in which he appeared in a game with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/07\/12\/top-chicago-blackhawks-defining-moments-in-franchise-history\/\" target=\"_self\">Chicago Blackhawks<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Khudobin Retires<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Longtime NHL netminder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/khudoan01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-03_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anton Khudobin<\/a> has retired after 14 seasons.<\/p>\n<p>More on Khudobin for <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BreakawayOnSI?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@BreakawayOnSI<\/a>: <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JZoFa5Lm36\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/JZoFa5Lm36<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Adam Waxman (@adamwaxman10) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/adamwaxman10\/status\/1952055103952654474?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 3, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>A fan favorite in the league, Khudobin retires with a 114-92-33 record to go alongside a .916 save percentage and a 2.52 goals against average. He was drafted by the Minnesota Wild in 2004 and his NHL debut with the team in the 2009-10 season. Khudobin also played for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/07\/08\/top-boston-bruins-defining-moments-in-franchise-history\/\" target=\"_self\">Boston Bruins<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/07\/15\/summer-series-dallas-stars-defining-moment\/\" target=\"_self\">Dallas Stars<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/07\/11\/top-carolina-hurricanes-defining-moments-nhl-history\/\" target=\"_self\">Carolina Hurricanes<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/07\/07\/summer-series-anaheim-ducks-defining-moment\/\" target=\"_self\">Anaheim Ducks<\/a>, and the aforementioned stint in Chicago.<\/p>\n<h3>Best Season<\/h3>\n<p>His best season was in 2019-20. He went 16-8-4 in 26 games. He posted a 930 save percentage and a 2.22 goals-against average. Furthermore, Khudobin helped the Stars reach the Stanley Cup Final. Unfortunately for the team, they were <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2020\/09\/28\/brayden-point-lightning-stanley-cup\/\" target=\"_self\">defeated in six games<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>&#8220;Dobby is a Free Elf!&#8221;<\/h3>\n<p>Khudobin was given a nickname by teammate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/r\/radulal01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-03_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alexander Radulov<\/a> in 2018 that would inspire Khudobin&#8217;s goalie mask artwork. For reasons seemingly unknown, Radulov bestowed the nickname, &#8220;Dobby,&#8221; upon Khudobin. Despite never reading the books or seeing the movies, Khudobin was aware he shared the nickname with the popular\u00a0<em>Harry Potter\u00a0<\/em>character.<\/p>\n<p>In 2018, Khudobin debuted his new goalie mask. The mask included a depiction of Dobby on on side and a Stars-themed sock on the other.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"und\">Dobby (Anton Khudobin) is a free goalie. \u2747\ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>(? S\u00e9bastien Gervais, ? <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Sylabrush?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Sylabrush<\/a>) <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/eAPSW4JctF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/eAPSW4JctF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NHL (@NHL) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NHL\/status\/1177320721623785473?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 26, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Khudobin retires after giving Stars fans fond memories in 2020. For hockey and\u00a0<em>Harry Potter\u00a0<\/em>fans, the image of Dobby on his mask will always be appreciated.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps now that he has time on his hands, the goaltender will start reading the famous books and seeing the movies. However, we do suggest starting with the books, Anton.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: Jerome Miron- Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anton Khudobin is retiring after a 14-year NHL career. The 39-year old spent last season in the All-Russian Hockey League. Khudobin last played in the NHL during the 2022-23 season, in which he appeared in a game with the Chicago Blackhawks. Khudobin Retires Longtime NHL netminder Anton Khudobin has retired after 14 seasons. More on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3464,"featured_media":473128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,29,4547,4548],"tags":[801],"class_list":["post-473127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-stars","category-hockey","category-nhl","tag-anton-khudobin"],"modified_by":"Andrew Willis","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3464"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":473129,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473127\/revisions\/473129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}