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Top 100 Oilers: No. 87 — Devan Dubnyk

Originally posted on Oilersnation | By Liam Horrobin | Last updated Sep 3, 2025 7:29 PM ET

Oilersnation is reviving the Top 100 Edmonton Oilers of All Time list, a project originally created by the late Robin Brownlee in 2015. Devan Dubnyk comes in at No. 87 on our updated 2025 list. He was ranked No. 70 on Brownlee’s original list.

Devan Dubnyk was once pegged as the future in Edmonton’s crease. Unfortunately for our friend Dubey, those years overlapped with one of the roughest stretches in franchise history.

Drafted in 2004 as the first goalie off the board in a deep class, he went on to play the most NHL games of that group with 500-plus. His best work came after he left, but it is easy to forget how well he played behind an Oilers team that struggled most nights.

Via The Nation Network

Notable

Dubnyk was one of two first-round picks for Edmonton in 2004, along with Rob Schremp. It was the first time the Oilers had used a first-round selection on a goalie since Grant Fuhr went eighth overall in 1981. Dubnyk went 14th, and expectations were high.

The Hockey News called the pick a “reach,” rating Czech netminder Marek Schwarz as the top goalie available. They even wrote, “If Dubnyk becomes a better NHLer than Schwarz, Oilers GM Kevin Lowe will have the last laugh. Don’t bet on it.” Dubnyk played 542 NHL games; Schwarz played six.

In Edmonton, Dubnyk posted a 2.65 goals-against average and a .917 save percentage from 2010 through 2013, numbers that stacked up with the league’s better starters of the time. The standard cratered in 2013-14, and he was moved in January to the Nashville Predators for Matt Hendricks, another tale from the decade of darkness.

Via The Nation Network

The Story

On Dubnyk’s exit, GM Craig MacTavish said, “I thought it was time for a change,” noting the burden of the role had worn on the young goaltender.

The spark did fade for a stretch. He appeared in only two games for Nashville, with head coach Barry Trotz noting that he had some “bad habits” from his time with the Oilers. Dubnyk was then dealt to Montreal a few weeks later, and finished the season with the AHL Hamilton Bulldogs without dressing for the Habs. He signed with Arizona that summer, then barely halfway through 2014-15, the Coyotes flipped him to Minnesota for a third-round pick.

That trade changed everything. With the Wild, Dubnyk became one of the NHL’s top goaltenders. With Minnesota, he set the franchise record for wins in a season (40), was a three-time NHL All-Star, earned the Bill Masterton Trophy in 2015, and was named a Second Team NHL All-Star the same year. After later stops in San Jose and Colorado, he retired in 2022 with 542 NHL games, 253 wins, and the second-most wins in Wild history.

Via The Nation Network

What Brownlee said

I’ve got to admit I smiled when Devan Dubnyk was voted the 2015 recipient of the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, annually awarded to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey, as a member of the Minnesota Wild.

Anybody who survives tending goal for 171 games over parts of five seasons behind the atrocious blue line group the Edmonton Oilers put on the ice during Dubnyk’s tenure, 2009-10 to 2013-14, is likely as deserving a winner as you’re going to find. I always thought it was too bad – for the Oilers, not necessarily for Dubnyk – he had to leave Edmonton to get it.