Matt Dumba in a contract year—how much longer will he be with the Minnesota Wild?

 

It’s well known Matt Dumba is entering the last year of a 5-year, $30 million contract with the only team he’s been with—the Minnesota Wild. He signed that contract after coming off of a season where he scored 50 points during the 2017-18 season (when Paul Fenton was the Wild’s GM). There were some pretty high hopes for Dumba when he signed that contract—where that 50 point (14 G, 36 A) season was a springboard to him becoming a strong offensive defenseman….

Well, that really hasn’t happened. 

Matt Dumba (photo courtesy of Jess Star/The Hockey Writers)

Since he was injured in a fight with Matthew Tkachuck back in December 2018 and missed more than half of the 2018-19 season recovering from a chest injury and surgery. Ever since, he’s missed time pretty much every season since and he hasn’t put up more than 30 points since.  (He did have 7 goals and 20 assists in 57 games last season).

Ever since he’s been with the Wild (he was drafted by the team as the 7^th overall pick in the 2012 NHL draft), Dumba has always been the subject of potential trade rumors. He was an exposed defenseman in the 2017 expansion draft for the Vegas Golden Knights. He wasn’t chosen by the team when Chuck Fletcher traded Alex Tuch in a side deal that included the Knights picking Erik Haula. Dumba wasn’t exposed as an option for the Kraken during the 2021 expansion draft (the Kraken ended up taking Carson Soucy from the Wild).

(photo courtesy of Icon Sportswire)

I think the Wild may actually try to move on from Dumba. The salary cap issue doesn’t help, either. The Wild already have a projected $66.3 million invested in 13 players for the 2023-24 season and the salary cap for next season is only going to increase by $1 million to $83.5 million. Then Matt Boldy, Sam Steel, and Filip Gustavsson are all restricted free agents at the end of this season. Depending on how all three perform this season, they could be looking at some pay increases. Dumba will be an unrestricted free agent and I don’t see him taking a pay cut to stay here.

I got the chance to ask Michael Russo from The Athletic at a recording of the Worst Seats in the House podcast recently about if the 6'0", 183 lb defenseman will be with the team at the end of the season. Russo did state he believes this is it for Dumba with the Wild. He believes Dumba will either be traded or he’ll walk.

There is a quote from The Athletic about a trade possibly involving Dumba:

 

“And finally, if the Wild fall out of contention this season, pending UFA blueliner Matt Dumba most likely will be trade bait. He has a 10-team no-trade list. He might be part of trade discussions even if the Wild stay in the playoff race, as part of a hockey trade to augment the Minnesota roster.”

 

He’s also hasn’t been playing all that great for someone who is in a contract year. Wild Head Coach Dean Evason recently demoted Dumba to the third defensive pairing with Jon Merrill. That may have provided some sort of a spark for Dumba—along with the rest of the defensive core.

With his being a contract year, Dumba really needs to step up and improve his game if he thinks he may get a pay raise after this season. It’s clear that he hasn’t been the same since that fight with Matthew Tkachuk four years ago. It’s going to be interesting to see how this whole thing plays out. The Wild also have a good pool of defense prospects (like Ben Faber) who could make the jump to the NHL line up, making Dumba expendable. 

The days of Matt Dumba in a Wild sweater are definitely numbered…how he leaves, remains to be seen.

 

Sources:

Worst Seats in the House, Episode "Back at Tuttles" (https://talknorth.com/worst-seats/)

Wild reportedly could trade Dumba, even if team is winning

The Minnesota Wild eliminate the Saint Louis Blues in round 1…now on to the next round against the Chicago Blackhawks

The Minnesota Wild did something at home for the first time in their 14-year history—they clinched a playoff series on home ice. They sent the Central Division Champions St. Louis Blues out of the playoffs in game six with a 4-1 win.

It was the first time in over 20 years that a Minnesota NHL team won a playoff series on home ice. The last time it happened was in 1991 when, ironically, the Minnesota North Stars eliminated the Blues.

Just three months ago, the Wild were in 12^th place in the Western Conference. Devan Dubnyk was acquired by the Wild and we all know what has happened since.

It is also the second consecutive season the Minnesota Wild has eliminated the Central Division Champions in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Last year, the Wild knocked out the Colorado Avalanche in Denver.

According to NHL.com writer Dan Myers (from his column Five Reasons Wild advanced to the second round), one of the top five reasons the Wild beat the Blues was how the Wild were winning on the road.

Myers wrote:

Dubnyk blocking a shot from the Blues' Paul Stasny
(courtesy of twincities.com)

“Over the final few weeks of the regular season, no team was better than the Wild at winning away from home. Minnesota tied an NHL record with 12 consecutive road victories from mid-February until the regular season finale in St. Louis, a game where several regulars from each team sat out...That trend continued into the postseason.” 

The Wild also had not lost back-to-back games and that continued into the playoffs, especially after losing game 4 by the score of 6-1. Dubnyk and the Wild responded by winning games 5 and 6, both by scores of 4-1. 

Devan Dubnyk stated to the press:

"I was thinking about it over the last couple of days...It just feels right. It feels right for our group to be where we are and to continue to move forward. That's why it's easy to go out and play and feel like we're going to win because we've done it all year. Hopefully we can continue doing that." 

It's been quite a roller coaster year for Devan Dubnyk, considering last year he was a "playoff extra" for Montreal. Now, he has been named as a finalist for the Vezina trophy last Friday and yesterday was named a finalist for the Masterton award. 

(All I am going to say is that Chuck Fletcher better sign Dubnyk to a new contract!!) 

Myers included in another article about the Minnesota-St. Louis series that:

“While the Blues have been beasts in the regular season the past four seasons, they’ve gone cold in the playoffs. And all four early exits came in series where the Blues had home ice advantage…While the Blues have dominated in the regular season, they have failed to reach anything close to that level in the postseason.” 

For the Wild, it also helped greatly that they were able to actually score on the power play during this series. Matt Dumba scored a power play goal in game 1 to give the Wild a two goal lead, while Jason Pominville scored a power play goal that happened to be an empty-netter to secure Minnesota's 4-2 win. Mikko Koivu scored a goal late in the second period on the power play to give the Wild a two-goal lead going into the third period of game 5. (We ALL know how horrible the power play was for the Wild during the regular season).  

Now, for the second straight year, the Wild will open round two against the Blackhawks in Chicago. It's going to be quite a series, and this isn't the same Wild team the Blackhawks have run into in the playoffs before....

Hopefully, this is the year the Wild beat the Blackhawks in the playoffs. 

To read Dan Myers' article Five reasons Wild advanced to the second round, link is here.