Report: Minnesota and Devan Dubnyk Agree on New Contract

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The Minnesota Wild and goaltender Devan Dubnyk have agreed to terms on a contract that’s rumored to be worth between $25-26 million over six years. The deal isn’t expected to be confirmed until Monday, but the Star Tribune’s Michael Russo is citing GM Chuck Fletcher saying the deal is 99% done.

Devan Dubnyk
(Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports)
The deal took a while with Fletcher and Dubnyk’s agent Mike Liut going back and forth. Dubnyk was looking for term and was rumored to be looking for a contract north of $5 million. At around $4.16 million, the Wild brought down the deal a bit by dragging out the term.

The 29-year-old goaltender will be 35 at the end of the deal and had an incredible 2014-15 season after having a bad year the season prior, which saw him bounce from the Edmonton Oilers to the Nashville Predators to the Montreal Canadiens. He then signed a low-paying deal with the Arizona Coyotes over the summer and was traded to the Wild in January, when he saved their bacon (and they probably saved his too).

Dubnyk went on to win the 2015 Masterton Trophy and was a Vezina Trophy finalist with a .929 save percentage in all situations and a 2.07 goals against average. The Wild are still figuring out what to do with the rest of their goaltenders. The team is currently working with Niklas Backstrom’s agent to try and find “a solution” for his situation. The Wild aren’t interested in playing him next year and because he’s injured they aren’t able to buy out his contract.

That leaves them with Dubnyk, Backstrom, and Darcy Kuemper on the NHL squad. It’s particularly tricky because the Wild cannot get Kuemper to the AHL without waivers and Backstrom has a no move clause.

Inside the system, the Wild lost disappointing prospect Johan Gustafsson, who will return to the SHL. They decided not to sign Alexandre Belanger and allowed him to re-enter the draft. They will likely run NCAA free agent Brody Hoffman and recent signing Steve Michalek, out of Harvard, with the Iowa Wild this coming season.

Keep up with all the Draft Weekend transactions at the The Hockey Writers Deal Tracker.

UPDATE:
Per Michael Russo, the deal will have a partial no trade clause for part of the term.

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