Dubnyk, Wild enjoying early penalty-kill success

There's this belief by some that Devan Dubnyk is coming off a rocky season between the pipes for the Wild, but Chuck Fletcher says if you delve deeper into the numbers, that's not entirely true.

The Wild general manager points out that Dubnyk, like the Wild, was handicapped by a backbreaking penalty kill, which mysteriously tumbled from first in the NHL in 2014-15 to 27th last season.

"Of the 20 goalies last year that played 50 or more games, he was No. 2 in the league in even-strength save percentage. He was 19th in the league out of those 20 on the PK," Fletcher said last month. "Our PK was 27th in the league, and the save percentage isn't always an indictment of the goalie if you're giving up high-quality chances, which we were.

"Two years ago, Devan was actually No. 1 in the league in PK save percentage. So, last year, 5-on-5, he had a very good season. That's two years in a row now where he's had a very good season 5-on-5, which to me is the most important indicator of a goaltender's performance. He's a good goaltender and has a great cap number [21st among NHL goalies at $4.33 million]."

Fletcher rattled Dubnyk's statistics off the top of his head. He was close, but to be accurate, Dubnyk ranked seventh in the NHL last season among goalies with 50 or more games with a .930 even-strength save percentage, according to NHL.com. He improved to fifth when dissecting that to 5-on-5 save percentage (.933, so excluding 4-on-4 and 3-on-3 overtime), according to multiple analytics websites.

Dubnyk's penalty-kill save percentage ranked 18th at .843.

Two years ago, when Dubnyk was a Vezina Trophy finalist and Masterton Trophy winner for saving the Wild's season, he ranked fourth in the NHL in PK save percentage (second at .932 if you only counted the Wild, not Arizona) and third in even-strength save percentage (.934).

But Fletcher's point is clear: "I think we're still very happy with him. All of our players need to be better on the PK. The way we killed was way too passive."

The adage is your goaltender must be your team's best penalty killer, and so far, so good this season. In albeit a small sample size, Dubnyk and the Wild are a perfect 6-for-6 on the penalty kill in two games heading into Tuesday's against the Los Angeles Kings.

"We keep last year's [even-strength save percentage] and then up the penalty kill, and everybody's success is going to be better," Dubnyk said. "That was definitely an area where I think we lost some hockey games last year. We know we have the personnel to do it. We couldn't get on a real roll last year, but I think with [assistant coach] Scott Stevens telling us how to kill penalties — he was one of the best in the league at it, ever, we'll all stay on the same page."

Dubnyk was mostly happy with his play last season, but he wants to eliminate the inconsistencies. His numbers dipped in the playoffs, where he allowed 20 goals in six games and stopped 87.7 percent of the Dallas Stars' shots.

"It was a bit of a roller coaster year more than I would have liked," said Dubnyk, who is 1-1 this season, allowing six goals. "Definitely parts of the year I would have liked to be a lot better, but looking back on it, besides definitely wanting to have more success in the playoffs, for us to be able to come together as a group in that March run, I'm very proud of that.

"But, I'm disappointed in the outcome of the playoffs because at the end of the day, that's what it's all about."

Dubnyk was also the victim of some of the flukiest goals imaginable last season.

"You could get picky on a couple of them as far as just tracking the puck better," he said. "You're always working to keep the eyes on the puck and try not to lose it. The more you can track the puck and make sure you don't lose it ever, the better chance you might have at making some circus stop to keep it out.

"A couple of them, you just tuck them away and laugh about. Those you leave alone. But every single goal that goes in, I'm looking at and trying to figure out what can be changed because arguably every goal can be stopped."

Physically, Dubnyk was dealing with some stubborn locked hips and mobility issues in training camp, but after active release therapy, he says that's behind him.

Mentally, he's refreshed for the season.

"It's nice to be in this position where I can just be excited about playing hockey," Dubnyk said. "There were a lot of questions last year, a lot of wondering how he'd come off the previous season and the [six-year, $26 million] contract. I feel good about where we are and that I can just go play hockey and worry about answering questions about playing hockey and not things that don't matter."