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