ST. LOUIS — Devan Dubnyk’s helmet is on its third design this season. His leg pads, glove and blocker were made to match the Arizona Coyotes’ uniforms.

The breezers? They’re from the Coyotes, too, so the Wild’s equipment staff cut out Arizona’s logo so he could wear them after being sent to Minnesota for a third-round draft pick on Jan. 14.

Each piece of equipment serves as a reminder as to just how drastically life has changed for Dubnyk, arguably the NHL’s hottest goaltender as the post- season begins this week.

Dubnyk, 28, has in large part been the difference in the Wild’s second-half rally, going 27-9-2 with a 1.78 goals-against average and .936 save percentage. Asked for his approach to his first NHL playoff series — which starts Thursday night in St. Louis against the Blues — he said, “You don’t change anything.”

Which explains the mismatched equipment.

Since beginning last season as the starter in Edmonton, Dubnyk has been waived, sent to the minors and played on three additional NHL teams — the Wild, Coyotes and Nashville Predators. His father, Barry, said it was “the year from hell” for the 14th overall pick in the 2004 entry draft.

Now part of the Hart and Vezina Trophy discussion as the NHL’s most valuable player and top goaltender, he approaches the postseason with a clear head.

“It’s the same hockey game played the same way,” he said. “You’re just playing one team a few more times.”

Embracing the pressure of postseason hockey is easier than facing a stalled career.

“He now realizes how fickle it is and how fleeting (success) is,” his father said. “And that helps him enjoy it a heck of a lot more.”

‘ONE OF THE BEST’

In his third year of major junior hockey, Dubnyk was called into the office of Kamloops Blazers coach Mark Ferner. Then 18, he scoured his brain for what he might have done wrong.

That wasn’t the issue.

“You’re playing until you tell me you can’t,” Ferner told him.

“That was the first time I’ve had somebody put that confidence in me,” Dubnyk said.

He played in 65 of 71 games that season, an ironman streak that rivals what Dubnyk has done with the Wild, starting a franchise-record 38 straight games.

“It was a long time ago,” Dubnyk said. “But that’s something I drew on this year.”

That season playing junior hockey, Dubnyk carried an otherwise ordinary team to a playoff berth, where they met the top-seeded Kootenay Ice in the spring of 2005.

The local newspaper ran a breakdown of the series and declared it an easy sweep for Kootenay. Instead, Dubnyk helped steal two wins, giving his coach the confidence to call Dubnyk a big-game goalie.

“He was outstanding,” Ferner said. “History tells us he can do it. When he’s on, he’s one of the best there is.”

‘GET DUBNYK’

The Wild’s front office was in Florida for scouting meetings when the team was floundering in mid-January. The Wild had just lost 12 of 14 games, the last an ugly 7-2 setback in Pittsburgh, and pressure to trade for a goalie was building.

But general manager Chuck Fletcher, concerned by an injury to Darcy Kuemper and the ineffectiveness of veteran Niklas Backstrom, had already set the process into motion. “We felt we needed to do something as soon as possible,” he said.

Starting goalies are hard to find midseason, however. The Wild front office had two legitimate options — Dubnyk and Buffalo Sabres goalie Jhonas Enroth. Fletcher called Wild goalie coach Bob Mason and asked for his opinion.

Mason didn’t hesitate; he had always been a fan of Dubnyk.

When the Wild were looking for a goaltender late last season, Mason had pitched Dubnyk before Minnesota landed Ilya Bryzgalov. Mason had watched Dubnyk take expanded practice when the Predators were in Minnesota for a game in February.

At the time, Dubnyk had a 3.43 goals-against average and was close to being sent to the minors. But Mason walked away impressed.

“I saw solid fundamentals and a good skill set,” he said.

So when Fletcher asked for Mason’s opinion, the goalie coach was ready.

“I said, ‘Get Dubnyk,’ ” Mason said. “Enroth was a starter, too, but I just liked Dubnyk.”

A NEW HOME

The Wild sent a third-round pick to Arizona for Dubnyk on Jan. 14. He started the next night, a 7-0 victory at Buffalo that snapped a six-game losing streak. The goaltender on the other end of the ice was Enroth.

On the flight back to Minnesota, Dubnyk sat next to Zach Parise and peppered him with questions about where Dubnyk should move his wife, Jennifer, and 1-year-old, Nathaniel.

Parise had a house in Edina that was on the market. When they returned to Minnesota, Parise removed the for sale sign and began renting it to Dubnyk.

“I’ve told him thanks like a thousand times,” Dubnyk said. “It’s been such a big deal for us to have that chance to be settled into a beautiful home right near all the other guys with kids.”

A week later, Jennifer and Nathaniel moved from Arizona, and Minnesota became home. They welcomed Dubnyk’s parents, Barry and Barb, for a visit a month ago.

“I hadn’t seen him that content and happy in a long time,” Barry said of his youngest son.

After the playoffs, Dubnyk and the Wild likely will negotiate a contract extension that would have obvious benefits to both sides.

On his fifth team since last season, Dubnyk is making $800,000. He appreciates the way the Wild play in front of him. The Wild, on their fifth starting goalie since last season, appreciate the stability Dubnyk has brought to the nets.

“We’re hopefully going to be able to look forward to a few years of coming to Minnesota for visits,” Barry said.

A NATURAL GOALIE

Barry Dubnyk describes his son’s early years as “full throttle.”

In the summers, he was on the trampoline, doing flips and wrestling with his older brother, Dave. In the winter, they played one-on-one hockey games on an outdoor rink their father built.

Recently, Barry found 8-millimeter film of those games and converted it to DVD to show Dave and, as Barry calls him, “Dev.” After seeing it, Dubnyk joked, “It’s no surprise why I’m a goalie.”

Barry played goalie through juniors but didn’t want Dubnyk to put on the pads simply because his dad used to play. Besides, Barry wanted him to be able to skate well. So when Dubnyk begged his father, then the coach of his 9-year-old team, they struck a deal: every other game in net.

The first game Dubnyk played, the team won. The second, with a different goalie, they were blown out. Dubnyk returned between the pipes in the third game and the team won.

He never played another position again.

It didn’t take long for it to become clear that Dubnyk was better than the other players his age, even in hockey-mad Alberta. But Barry tried to stress to his son how difficult it is to make the NHL.

Dubnyk wanted no part of that talk. To him, the NHL was a given.

When he was 13, he asked Dave, two years his elder, with a straight face: “Which NHL team are you going to play for?”

Dave looked back puzzled and explained he probably wasn’t going to make it to the NHL.

Dubnyk looked back at Dave like he was crazy.

“Devan just assumed it was a given,” Barry said.

Barry and Dave help run a Mazda dealership in Lethbridge, Alberta, as dealer principal and manager, respectively. For years, when a potential buyer came in, it often seemed their real desire was to talk hockey.

Barry began to notice that change last season. As Dubnyk’s season spiraled downward, clients were hesitant to bring up hockey.

“People were almost afraid to ask about it,” Barry said.

Not anymore.

A NEW APPRECIATION

As Dubnyk prepared last summer for the biggest season of his career, he met with several coaches, including his former Oilers goalie coach, Frederic Chabot.

They talked about the most important aspects of Dubnyk’s game — primarily his positioning — and the fundamentals for all goaltenders. What needed most work, though, was Dubnyk’s confidence.

After goaltending had come so easy for so long, Dubnyk was faced with recovering mentally from disappointment. Part of that was learning to appreciate every victory.

“I think it’s a good thing that it happened for him because it made him realize how much he likes the game,” Chabot said. “It made him realize what he had to do to come back to the NHL and perform at the level he believed he could play.”

As Dubnyk became the story of the NHL the final three months of the season, the interview requests flooded in. So Dubnyk had a few stock responses.

When asked about last season, he often responded that if he had imagined the worst possible outcome of the season, it still would not have been half as bad as what actually occurred.

After seeing that quote so many times, Barry has a new way of describing this season for Dubnyk.

“If you had asked me at the beginning of the year to dream up the best scenario,” Barry said, “I couldn’t script a better one.”

Follow Chad Graff at twitter.com/ChadGraff.