Dallas goalie left mark on Houston
Khudobin played for Aeros in late 2000s
In what’s been an unconventional year for sports, perhaps it’s only fitting that Anton Khudobin has emerged as one of the top stories in the NHL playoffs.
When the Stanley Cup Final begins Saturday night in Edmonton, Alberta, Khudobin will be starting in goal for the Dallas Stars against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
That’s not a development most seasoned hockey observers would have predicted when the NHL resumed its season in a pair of bubbles, but Khudobin has authored a circuitous journey to his sport’s greatest stage.
The 34-year-old Kazakhstan native’s hockey passport includes stops with 12 different teams, with the Stars being his fifth NHL franchise. He spent parts of four seasons in Houston with the Aeros, where his numbers weren’t eye-popping — a 38-39-7 record, 2.51 goals against average and .907 save percentage — but he left an impression.
“He’s just not your typical goalie where you deal with egos or just being strange and off the wall a little bit,” said John Scott, a former Aeros defenseman and Khudobin’s teammate for two seasons. “He’s just a normal guy, which is refreshing. He went about his business, had a good personality and sense of humor.
“You would never expect him to be a good goaltender if you saw him walking around town because he didn’t look athletic or like a professional goalie. But you get him between the pipes, and he’s making all these acrobatic saves. It’s pretty remarkable the run he’s on right now. It’s pretty cool to watch.”
An injury to Ben Bishop, the Stars’ No. 1 goalie, created an opportunity for Khudobin and he seized it. He’s notched all but one of Dallas’ 12 playoff wins and allowed just eight goals in the five-game victory over Vegas in the Western Conference final, making several highlight-reel saves along the way.
But before he sat four wins away from the Stanley Cup, Khudobin was a longshot prospect whose pro career began in one of the most nontraditional of markets. Three years after the Minnesota Wild took him in the seventh round of the 2004 draft, 206th overall, Khudobin spent his rookie year with the Beaumontbased Texas Wildcatters of the East Coast Hockey
League, two rungs below the NHL.
Malcolm Cameron, a well-traveled veteran of the minors, was the coach that season, when Khudobin went 20-1-4 with a 1.98 GAA and .933 save percentage to earn ECHL Goaltender of the Year honors.
“It’s not a surprise whatsoever,” Cameron said of Khudobin’s success. “Guys like him, they just will their way to success. It’s hard to get to the Stanley Cup (Final). If it were easy, everybody would do it. But I knew he’d have success in the (NHL). I just knew he would.
“I remember telling (Wild management), ‘This guy’s going to play in the NHL. He might not play for you but he’s going to play in the NHL.’ He’s a classic late bloomer”
Khudobin made it to the NHL in 2010, winning his first two games with the Wild. Still, he found himself playing in the AHL as recently as the 2016-17 season. Few positions in pro sports are scrutinized as much, and goalie is the hardest position to scout in the NHL. The odds are even greater for those drafted in the seventh round.
“Goaltending’s such a hard nut to crack, and if you’re a 28-year-old goalie and you haven’t made that NHL debut or really made your mark, not many people are willing to give you an opportunity,” Scott said. “It’s really a credit to him where he worked and stuck with it because he easily could’ve pulled the chute and gone back to Russia and play in the KHL and make the big bucks. But he wanted to stay and make it in the NHL.
“You could always see the raw talent was there. He just needed an opportunity and a little work. Man, it’s paying off because he is stealing the games for Dallas.”
He’s also stealing the show with his personality, becoming an online sensation, with his “We’re not going hoooome!” clip after the
Stars’ Game 5 clincher went viral and ended up on Tshirts sold by the franchise.
That personality left an indelible mark, with Scott chuckling while telling a story about Khudobin trying to sell him a used Nissan Murano for upwards of $30,000.
That was the same car Khudobin left for Cameron’s wife to use the summer after his season in Beaumont, knowing the couple only had one vehicle. Khudobin had become close with the Camerons, often coming to their house to watch NHL games and play street hockey with their oldest son Brett, then 7. When Khudobin got his first NHL win, he gave the stick he used to Brett, and it’s still on display in the Cameron home.
“He said ‘Heather drives my car — you drive the Jeep,’ ” Cameron said. “He let her drive his car all summer with no fear. It was like, ‘Hey, you guys are family.’ ”
The favor was returned the next year, when the
Wild loaned Khudobin to Cameron’s new ECHL team in Estero, Fla.
“He wasn’t afraid to ask me if he could borrow it on occasion to go over to Miami to get some Russian groceries,” Cameron said with a laugh. “Then you’d see him pull out of the parking lot with the top down, his sunglasses on and cruising in my Mustang.”
Cameron, now coaching in Romania, goes to bed early so he can wake up to watch Khudobin’s playoff games. He said he messaged him after the Stars’ Game 7 overtime victory in the second round against Colorado.
It was a wrenching series for Cameron, whose former roommate Jared Bednar coaches the Avalanche.
After the Stars won, he texted Khudobin congratulations.
“I told him how proud our family was of him and how happy we were for him to be having this type of success and to keep it going,” Cameron said.
The reply he got? “A big huge smiley face.
“He hasn’t changed one bit,” Cameron said. “His personality is unbelievably infectious. He just makes you feel better about you and coming to work every single day. He is just so fun to be around.
“He’s just a really class guy and we’ve kept in touch through the years. It’s not as easy as you think sometimes, but we (communicate) once or twice a year. And when you see him, he’s still the same guy. He’s made a lot of money in his career, but he’s still the same Dobby that we had in Beaumont.”