Report: Contract talks between Wild, Dubnyk proving 'difficult'
Did Devan Dubnyk price himself out of the Minnesota Wild's plans with his strong play this past season?
The two sides are believed to have been attempting to work out a new deal for the past two weeks, but an agreement is proving difficult, Bob McKenzie of TSN reported Tuesday on "Insider Trading."
Well, Devan Dubnyk negotiations have been going on a week or two now. There’s no deal in place at this point. That’s not to suggest that they can’t get a deal done, but it’s going to be difficult.
The Minnesota Wild are a cap-strapped team right now and they want to buy out Niklas Backstrom, their veteran goaltender, but he’s got elbow surgery coming up. You can’t buy out an injured player, so there’s lots of concern on that front.
It may be a case too where Dubnyk is going to be looking for a lot more money than the Wild had planned on paying him. He’s unrestricted in the summer.
Backstrom has one year left on his deal with a cap hit of just over $3.41 million, while Darcy Kuemper also signed for 2015-16 at $1.25 million.
McKenzie further suggests a team like the San Jose Sharks could be willing to pay the free agent rather than trying to acquire a goalie via trade.
It's an interesting spot for Dubnyk to find himself in, considering he was all but out of the NHL at this time last year. However, his career experienced a great resurgence in Minnesota as the 29-year-old posted a record of 27-9-2 with a .936 save percentage guiding the Wild to the playoffs, and earning a Vezina Trophy finalist nod.
- With h/t to Today's Slapshot