Wild sends Matt Dumba to American Hockey League for first time

The Wild seriously considered sending rookie defenseman Matt Dumba to the minors for the first time two weeks ago, but suddenly, defensemen Marco Scandella and Jonas Brodin got the mumps at the same time and Dumba stayed and Christian Folin went to Iowa in large part because Dumba could maybe assist on the power play.

But with Brodin having returned for the first time since Nov. 11 Friday night in Dallas, the Wild assigned Dumba to the American Hockey League for the first time in his pro career this morning.

Dumba, as well as Josh Harding, are expected to make their Iowa Wild debuts Sunday at 4 p.m. at San Antonio.

Dumba, 20, logged 4:10 in last night's overtime win at Dallas and I'm pretty sure was supposed to be scratched until Keith Ballard ended up not playing. Not sure if he was a healthy scratch or if he's sick or hurt, but the Wild has recalled Justin Falk to likely play tonight against St. Louis. But that could be just because the Wild wants Falk's 6-foot-5 frame on the back end to defend the Blues' deep, big forward corps.

Back to Dumba, he made the Wild out of camp last year, but that was in large part because the Wild wanted him to work hand in hand with assistant coaches Rick Wilson and Darryl Sydor. Because he was younger than 20, he was not permitted to be sent to AHL Houston. (His three games with Houston plus five playoff games in 2013 was on an amateur tryout after his Red Deer season ended).

When he only played 13 games by December, the Wild loaned him to Team Canada for the world juniors, then returned him to juniors after his rights were traded from Red Deer to Portland, where now Penguins coach Mike Johnston was coach and GM.

This season, Dumba had a solid training camp, especially late, and made the team. He scored one goal and three assists in 20 games, was minus-4 and had 28 shots.

The demotion to Iowa is nothing to freak out about if you're a Wild fan. He's 20. The AHL is about development and the Wild now has John Torchetti and Richard Park there, so the Wild trusts that he'll be in good hands.

It is not easy to step into the NHL as a 20-year-old, ESPECIALLY as a defenseman. It takes defensemen and goalies longer to develop. Heck, just look at Marco Scandella, who to quote Mike Yeo a few games ago is turning into a heck of an NHL defenseman at age 24.

An excerpt from my blog after the Montreal loss:

The Matt Dumba one tonight was not good. Scoreless. Everything going well. Team's following the gameplan and trying hard to get that first goal by Carey Price.

Then Dumba, instead of doing the safe thing and getting the puck deep, tried to chip a puck off the wall. It was too soft, so instead of backing up and realizing it was going to be a turnover, he stepped in front of defender Max Pacioretty (1st big mistake) and then dived to try to keep it from getting to Tomas Plekanec (2nd big mistake).

Dumba played one shift the rest of the game and none in the third period.

The Wild keeps playing Dumba because it's about development and has to experience intimidating climates like Montreal, but he's 20 years old and erratic and hasn't yet played a second of minor-league hockey (as a pro) even though last I checked, that's the development league.

The question is can the Wild continue to play him when the bad has thus far outweighed the good.

Jonas Brodins don't grow on trees. The fact that he could step into the Wild at 19 years old was special. Dumba has all the tools to be a real good defenseman, but he is too reckless at times and tonight characteristically tried to turn nothing into something, made a careless play and it led to a goal against.

Like I said, assistant coach Rick Wilson benched him from there, so perhaps a stint in Iowa is coming for Dumba.

The Wild doesn't have a morning skate today. I am currently on a flight home to Minnesota. We will talk to Yeo at 4:45 about today's move. It's expected to be Niklas Backstrom vs. Jake Allen tonight.

Kent Youngblood will be writing the game story for tomorrow's paper. I'll be at the game to write the notebook, get a Sunday for Monday story (day off tomorrow), tweet and probably blog.

Lastly, some Twitter notes from working on my Excel files today: