The news that Matt Dumba will miss at least three months creates a huge hole on the Minnesota Wild blue-line.
Matt Dumba, until his recent injury, led all Minnesota Wild defensemen in points and is still currently running second among defensemen league-wide when it comes to goal-scoring, with only the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Morgan Reilly topping his 12 goals. He’d have at least gleaned a mention in Norris Trophy discussions if he maintained his pace.
His absence opens up a big hole in points production with his 0.69 points-per-game ranking fifth on the Minnesota Wild team. For a side that often struggles to score and is averaging a 2.94 goals-per-game, good enough for seventeenth best in the league Goals For averages; it’s not hard to see the impact his absence may have.
Averaging a time on ice total per game of 23:23, it’s safe to say that Minnesota Wild head coach, Bruce Boudreau relies on Matt Dumba to play big minutes. Some of that can be fixed by bringing Jared Spurgeon‘s number up from 22:30, but do you really want to see Jonas Brodin, Greg Pateryn and Nick Seeler playing greater minutes than they currently do?
It seems Nate Prosser will finally be rewarded for his press-box patience, whilst it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see someone moved up (either to that press-box seat or maybe for some actual game-time) from the Iowa Wild.
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The hot candidates there would be Ryan Murphy, Brennan Menell or Louie Belpedio, you’d have to think. Either way, they hardly give the same offensive production that needs replacing and are little more than stop-gaps.
We all saw earlier in the season what happened when Ryan Suter and Matt Dumba were separated but it seems the coach’s hand is going to be forced into giving the Spurgeon and Suter combo an extended work-out.
Behind them, you’d be relying on Jonas Brodin to provide some stability alongside, most likely Greg Pateryn.
Thankfully in Pateryn, you have a veteran presence that shouldn’t labour too much on a top-four pairing, though is still probably better suited on the third pairing at this stage of his career.
That leaves a pairing of Nate Prosser and Nick Seeler to round out the line-up. It’s by no means ideal, but that is the reality of the situation with the current Wild roster make-up.
All in all, it’s safe to say that Matt Dumba is going to be a huge missing piece in a Minnesota Wild line-up that lacks goal-scoring punch.
With any luck he can recover quicker than expected and get back on the ice by late February, but you’d have to imagine the chances of that are slim.
Likewise, the Minnesota Wild and their chances of making play-offs especially if any key piece ends up on the injured list.