The Minnesota Wild were on an especially dramatic roller coaster ride throughout the 2014-15 season. They looked to be bottoming out before an unlikely hero emerged in the form of Devan Dubnyk, who was acquired with a third-round pick in January.
Dubnyk made 39 appearances for the Wild after the trade and essentially put the team on his back to trigger a rebound of rather epic proportions. He went 27-9-2 with a .936 save percentage, 1.78 goals-against average and five shutouts. That performance led to Dubnyk finishing fourth in Hart Trophy voting and third in Vezina voting. Not bad for a guy that started the season as Mike Smith’s backup with the Arizona Coyotes after nearly washing out of the league the season before.
The Wild then ousted Central Division champion St. Louis in the first round of the playoffs before getting bounced themselves by in familiar fashion by the eventual Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks.
Considering how the season was going, you could definitely say that it ended as an overall success. That said, Wild fans are right to want more from this team. The three consecutive postseason appearances are nice, but they’ve been running in place a little bit. So can this team take the next step this year?
The Wild return largely the same roster from last year, with mostly internal players filling holes left by departing veterans.
Though there weren’t many outside additions, the youth of the roster has to collectively take another step forward to help the franchise do the same. The Wild look poised for a fourth straight trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but how far can they go this time?
2015-16 at a glance
New Additions: Mike Reilly, Chris Porter
Key losses: Chris Stewart, Kyle Brodziak, Matt Cooke, Keith Ballard, Jordan Leopold
Top returning scorers: Zach Parise (74 GP, 33-29—62), Jason Pominville (82 GP, 18-36—54), Thomas Vanek (80 GP, 21-31—52)
Total salary against cap: $68,896,340
Cap space remaining: $2,503,660
Biggest question heading into the season: Can Devan Dubnyk replicate the remarkable season he had in 2014-15?
In short, the answer to this question is probably not. Obliterating both his career numbers and the perception that his career was dead coming into last season was no small feat for Dubnyk. It is to be admired and commended, but it isn’t something you should be expecting to see on an annual basis.
What you should be expecting, however, is Dubnyk being a better goalie than he had been before last season. If he’s somewhere between his career .914 save percentage and the career-best .929 he posted between the Coyotes and Wild last season, that’s good news for Minnesota. That’s a pretty wide range, but considering he posted an .891 save percentage the year before, it's really anyone's guess what 2015-16 will bring.
That’s not to say that last season was a mirage, because there were many factors that played into Dubnyk’s success. You can point to his working with widely respected goalie coach Sean Burke in Arizona before landing with Minnesota, the fact that the Wild were the best team Dubnyk had played behind in his career and the motivation brought forth by his insane 2013-14 season that ended in the AHL all could have played a role. It’s just so lofty a bar that getting there again is going to be really tough.
Now Dubnyk has something quite different to contend with. He has higher expectations placed on him and a big contract to live up to after he signed a six-year, $26 million deal with the Wild this summer. How he handles all of that could play a big role in the Wild’s ability to move forward and join the elites of the West.
Season outlook: The Wild have a lot going for them heading into the year. They have playoff experience, a set of productive veterans in key positions that can be relied on in every situation, young players that should be pushing for bigger roles and it at least looks like they’ve got a really strong goaltender.
They will face a tough Central Division once again, where it looks like all seven teams look capable of making a playoff push. That may require the Wild to do a little more scoring, even if they were in the top half of the league in goals-per-game last season with 2.77.
Zach Parise quietly had a strong year in 2014-15 with 33 goals and 62 points to lead the team. The Wild should be looking for more out of Thomas Vanek, who finished with the lowest pointer-per-game total of his career with 0.65. The club also could have its scoring supplemented in a big way from youngsters like Nino Niederreiter, who had 24 tallies last season, and Jason Zucker, who may have challenged for 30 goals if he didn’t get injured. He had 21 goals in just 51 games last season. The same goes for Mikael Granlund, who had 39 points in 69 games.
The Wild will also be looking for big things from the young blue line that surrounds star defenseman Ryan Suter. Mathew Dumba could be poised for a breakout season after getting into 58 games last year. Jonas Brodin, just 22 years old, is already at a level where the team can use him in just about any situation. Then there’s Jared Spurgeon and Marco Scandella, who are among veterans now on this club and played top-four minutes all of last season.
The Wild’s overall depth on the blue line may be questionable, especially if Dumba and others like Christian Folin falter this season, but it’s not an overwhelming concern. That’s especially true if offseason signing Mike Reilly makes a quick adjustment to the pro game. The highly-skilled 22-year-old may not make the opening-night roster, but there’s a good chance he’ll see NHL time at some point and potentially supplement the team’s offensive attack and power play down the line.
As long as Dubnyk can hold down the fort, this is a group that can absolutely make the playoffs and maybe even has an outside shot of winning the Central and home ice. It’s going to take quite a few things going right to make that happen, but this should be a year in which the Wild collectively take the next step. That may not necessarily mean a deep playoff run because anything can happen then, it should mean they’re one of the teams every NHL club has concerns about when they appear on the week’s schedule. The money has been spent and the pieces are in place for the Wild to challenge the league’s elites.
