Wild wants Dubnyk to stay, and vice versa

Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher met with goalie Devan Dubnyk on Monday to convey how much the Wild wants to sign him in advance of free agency July 1.

"Like any unrestricted free agent, he's earned the right to make the choice he wants to make," Fletcher said. "He knows what we have here. We were a good fit for him, and I think he was obviously a good fit for us. Ultimately he'll have the final say and we'll do what we can within the parameters of the salary cap to keep him here."

Dubnyk, 29, will leave it up to his agent to try to work out a contract.

"I'm not going to go look elsewhere if there is no need to, and obviously that depends on what comes and how those conversations are going," Dubnyk said.

Until the Wild re-signs Dubnyk, Fletcher won't know how to proceed with his own free agents. Fletcher might have interest in re-signing players such as Kyle Brodziak and Jordan Leopold, but "with the cap system, our first priority has to be figuring out our goaltending and then from there it'll be simple math to see what we have left."

After debuting Jan. 15 with a shutout in Buffalo, Dubnyk won 27 games and gave up 68 goals in 39 starts. In the playoffs though, he went 4-6 with a 2.53 goals-against average and .908 save percentage. He gave up some ill-timed goals.

Fletcher said that doesn't change the way he thinks of Dubnyk.

"You go back to Game 1 [vs. Chicago], some of the chances we were even giving up were uncharacteristic," Fletcher said.

Dubnyk has leverage. He saved the Wild's season, and his reps know the Wild wouldn't feel comfortable starting next season with a Darcy Kuemper-Niklas Backstrom tandem.

"This is the first time I've been through this situation, so I'll relax and let the other people do the work," Dubnyk said. "But there's no reason why I wouldn't want to be here."

With the free-agent interview period leading up to July 1, Dubnyk would have the chance to talk to other teams if the Wild doesn't sign him beforehand.

"That's the reality," Fletcher said. "The flip side is we have the ability to talk to other [goalies] at that point too. Hopefully it won't get to that.

"We're really, really well coached in terms of defensive structure. The shots around the net, we're usually in the top two teams in the league for fewest … against. We've had a lot of goaltenders have a lot of success here in the last few years. … But Devan's [29] years old, he's a big goalie and he's a guy that seemed to fit in well with our group. If we can make it happen, we will."

Brodziak, seventh all-time in Wild history with 446 games, was the first player Fletcher traded for when he became GM in 2009. The 30-year-old was a big part of the NHL's top-ranked penalty kill, and Fletcher indicated he would like Brodziak back.

"First time I'll ever be a UFA, so I don't really know what to expect," Brodziak said. "I loved it here. I've been here for six years, started my family here, made a lot of really good friends. I have nothing bad to say about the organization, so right now, I'm just not really sure what's going to pan out."

Chris Stewart, who scored three goals and eight assists in 20 regular-season games and no goals in eight playoff games, also said: "Hopefully there's an opportunity for me to come back here. I thought the fit was perfect."