Devan Dubnyk

Devan Dubnyk was born on May 4, 1986, in Regina, Saskatchewan, and was selected by the Edmonton Oilers in the first round, 14th overall, of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft. He went on to play 542 games in the NHL over the course of his career, recording 253 wins, a 2.61 goals-against average, a .914 save percentage, and 33 shutouts before retiring in 2022 after 12 NHL seasons.

The path from that draft selection to a long career was not straightforward. After bouncing through multiple franchises, Dubnyk ended the 2013–14 season in the American Hockey League. A short stint with the Arizona Coyotes — less than one full season — changed the trajectory of what followed. Working with then-Coyotes goaltending coach Sean Burke, Dubnyk absorbed a depth-management principle that he carried for the remainder of his career. As he explained to the InGoal Radio Podcast ^[1], Burke never prescribed a fixed spot in the crease. "All he said was, 'I want you to beat the pass on your feet and be set. Wherever you're comfortable doing that, I want you to be able to beat the pass on your feet, push, stop and set.'" The Coyotes drilled it daily with a simple exercise: players lining up at the face-off dots outside the blue line, passing across, shot — push, stop, set, repeated until it was automatic. Dubnyk credited that framework as a significant factor in a turnaround season that ended with him finishing third in Vezina Trophy voting, fourth in Hart Trophy balloting, and winning the Bill Masterton Trophy, split between Arizona and the Minnesota Wild, who acquired him mid-season ^[1].

The depth rule, as Dubnyk explained it, is not one-size-fits-all. "Some guys that are better skaters might be able to play further out," he said. "If a guy is a phenomenal skater, like [Marc-Andre Fleury] can play further out than me because he floats around on the ice. [Carey] Price floats around on the ice." The anchor of the principle — beat the pass on your feet and be set when the shot arrives — remained his benchmark regardless of context ^[1].

InGoal Magazine has covered Devan Dubnyk in three podcast appearances, three Pro Reads, and three InGoal articles.

Dubnyk's Pro Reads work with InGoal focused heavily on the poke check, a skill that generated a long list of online highlight clips during his playing career. InGoal's Kevin Woodley noted that a search for Dubnyk's name alongside "poke check" produced videos described in headlines with words like "classic," "diving," "daring," and "terrific" ^[2]. Dubnyk's comfort with the subject was such that the first Pro Reads session required two parts to cover it ^{[3] [2]}. Across those sessions, Dubnyk broke down the situational factors he weighs before attempting a poke check — including the shooter's hand, angle, and the read he gets on where the puck is headed — and was candid about examples where the move was not the ideal choice. He stressed that committing fully once the decision is made is essential. "You've got to commit," he said in one session. "A straight-forward sell out" ^[3]. In a separate example, describing a play where the puck ended up hitting him in the neck, he said: "The key here is you commit to it and then you've got to throw yourself at him and that kind of cuts it off. You're trying to wait for him to put his head down. A lot of times you can catch him off" ^[2]. A third Pro Reads installment extended beyond the poke check, walking through a delayed penalty and power kill sequence against the Anaheim Ducks in a session that ran more than 15 minutes of video breakdown and covered lane selection, stick use on sharp-angle attacks, and lateral movement choices ^[4].

A lesson Dubnyk learned early in his professional career — from his agent, retired NHL goalie Mike Liut — addressed the mental side of the position. Following a difficult game in the American Hockey League, Liut explained that goaltending is unlike almost any other sport in that a goalie cannot manufacture a result through effort alone. "Mike told me this is the only position in sports where you can't go out and make things happen. You can't fire yourself up. You can't just try harder because it's one of the only positions in sports that is purely reactive," Dubnyk said ^[5]. "You can't go out and pitch a 50-save shutout if you only get 10 shots. You have to let everything come to you and if you don't and you're pushing forward, and you're trying too hard and you're squeezing, then it just doesn't work. And there's not a lot of positions in sports like that. Really none" ^[5]. That same principle applied in high-pressure moments throughout his career. "You need intensity still, but you can't go chasing," he said. "It's a fine line and once you cross that line and start to chase the play, it's over" ^[5].

Dubnyk has also spoken directly to what he views as the team-building responsibilities of a goaltender. "There's no goalie in the world that's good enough to make a bad team good. There's just not," he said. "You can make a good team great. But you can't stick anybody on a bad hockey team, especially with the creativity and the skill level of the game today. They're going to get scored on. It's just the way it is" ^[6]. He described work ethic in practice — including in drills not specifically designed around the goaltender's development — as the foundation of building that relationship with teammates. "You've got to be out there in practice and you've got to be trying on shots. You've got to be trying on rebounds. You've got to be having fun with the guys. Not yelling at them," he said ^[6]. He also pointed to how a goaltender responds after a teammate's mistake as consequential: "It is so much more productive to pick somebody up if they made a mistake. You can be frustrated in the moment. Take a breath, go give them a tap on the shinpads. He knows he messed up. You don't have to tell him" ^[6]. The perspective extends to the longer arc of a career, in Dubnyk's view: "You're going to enjoy your time, you're going to play better, you're going to be on better teams. All of these things are going to come together if you learn how to become a great teammate" ^[6].

Since retiring, Dubnyk has been involved in goaltending analysis work with the Edmonton Oilers and Oilers Nation, breaking down video in both pregame and postgame settings ^[7]. That work was discussed on Episode 305 of the InGoal Radio Podcast, where the breakdown of a controversial late-game goal was cited as an example of analysis that went beyond simple goalie advocacy to examine all the factors surrounding the play ^[7]. Dubnyk also addressed the topic of Calvin Pickard's role with the Oilers during the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, framing it in terms of what a goaltender brings beyond statistical performance. "You think Calvin Pickard is one of the best 64 goalies on the planet, skill wise? Probably not," Dubnyk said. "Is he a great teammate … who works his ass off harder than anybody and has a great mental mindset? Yes. And look what he's done. Look where he is" ^[6].