Canadiens reportedly considered trading for Devan Dubnyk

For now, Devan Dubnyk remains a member of the Minnesota Wild. But according to a report from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Montreal Canadiens apparently had their eye on the Wild netminder before acquiring Jake Allen from the St. Louis Blues earlier this month. You can read Friedman’s report here, which also details Matt Dumba’s uncertain future in Minnesota:

This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone. Wild general manager Bill Guerin hasn’t been shy about making significant roster changes over the last few weeks. He’s already swapped Eric Staal for Marcus Johansson and acquired Nick Bjugstad from the Pittsburgh Penguins. Sending Dubnyk to Montreal, however, would have been quite a move.

Dubnyk, 34, is set to enter the final year of his contract with a cap hit of $4,333,333. At one time, that AAV was one of the better bargains in the NHL as Dubnyk was putting up All-Star worthy numbers. The last two seasons haven’t been great for the Regina native, though. In 2018-19, Dubnyk appeared in 67 games and logged an OK 2.54 goals against average and .913 save percentage. But this past season, Dubnyk posted some of the worst numbers of his career. Of all goalies to play at least 500 minutes in 2019-20, Dubnyk ranked fifth-to-last in both GAA (3.35) and save percentage (.890).

It didn’t take long for Dubnyk to relinquish the starting duties to Alex Stalock, who played well at times given the circumstances. With Stalock seemingly destined to remain the Wild’s starter going into next season, as well as the emergence of 24-year-old Kaapo Kahkonen, one can only imagine Dubnyk’s days in Minnesota are numbered.