Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk has a chance to secure the 200th win of his career in Edmonton against an Oilers team that gave him his start in the NHL.
Instead of splitting up the back-to-back like the team typically has this season, coach Bruce Boudreau tabbed his No.1 goaltender to play Saturday after Dubnyk posted a 30-save effort Friday in Vancouver en route to a 5-2 win over the Canucks.
"It is a fine line between keeping him sharp," Boudreau said. "But in the next two weeks, we get a lot of breaks. But [backup] Alex [Stalock] will get his fair share coming in and starting probably in Arizona next weekend."
Dubnyk's performance against the Oilers over the years has been stellar.
Since the team, which originally drafted him 14th overall in 2004, traded him to the Predators – the start of a tumultuous journey for Dubnyk before he reestablished himself in Arizona in 2014-15 to tee up a trade to Minnesota – Dubnyk is 8-1 with a .948 save percentage and 1.31 goals-against average against Edmonton.
"That's the start of my career, so it's always a very special time and something that I'm always going to remember," Dubnyk said. "We bought a house there. We made a lot of friends there. I really enjoyed it. It was obviously difficult standings-wise, but I learned a lot and there's some great people there that I still talk to. They gave me an opportunity to start my NHL career, and they stuck with me. It wasn't exactly a polished start to my career, by any means, and they stuck with me and believed in me and that's important."
Projected lineup:
Zach Parise-Mikko Koivu-Charlie Coyle
