The Minnesota Wild, suffering from possibly the worst goaltending tandem in the NHL, made a move to shore up their team between the pipes Wednesday when they traded a third-round pick to the Arizona Coyotes for Devan Dubnyk, according to TSN's Darren Dreger.
It's a big move for the struggling Wild, who had been forced to endure the efforts of Darcy Kuemper (.902 SV% in 28 games) and Niklas Backstrom (.887 SV% in 19 games) through the first half of this season and were looking for some type of move to jumpstart their flailing franchise.
The 6-foot-6 Dubnyk has a better, if not necessarily stellar, .916 SV% in 19 games this year.
What does all this have to do with St. Louis Blues goaltender, Martin Brodeur?
Well, coincidentally or not, President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Doug Armstrong and Brodeur announced Wednesday via the team website that the veteran netminder would be taking a one-week leave of absence from the Blues, after which time, "his future will be addressed."
With Brian Elliott's recent return to health and rookie Jake Allen not going anywhere, the Blues had a logjam at the goalie position with Brodeur clocking in as a clear third.
As the Wild were desperate to deal for goalie help, making a move to acquire Brodeur would have made a lot of sense. Is there more to the fact that they didn't?
Is it possible, as Nick Cotsonika of Yahoo! Sports opined that it "tells Marty something" about the way he's now viewed across the league that the Wild didn't deal for him?
Brodeur, now 42, has appeared in seven games for the Blues. His record is 3-3-0 and he has a 2.87 GAA and a .899 SV%.
Dubnyk is 28 and has a 9-5-2 record with a 2.72 GAA this year. He's played in 192 career games for the Oilers, Predators and Coyotes in parts of six seasons.
According to Andy Strickland of Fox Sports Southwest, the Blues could move Brodeur if they wanted, it will just come down to whether or not Brodeur wants to play elsewhere.
So, perhaps it's a question of Brodeur's willingness to move to another NHL city.
Or, maybe the Blues had the chance to deal him to the Wild but were asking too much and now Brodeur is frustrated with the team.
Or, perhaps he's simply changed his mind about playing in the NHL at all.
