In his early twenties, Dwayne Roloson slipped quietly out of Ontario and onto the campus of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell where he stepped between the pipes for four years of standout action. In his senior year, he was named a league and NCAA All-Star.
But the NHL scouts never beat a path to his goal crease. Instead he knocked on doors himself, eventually signing as a free agent with the Calgary Flames in 1994. The Flames sent Roloson to the minors to play for St. John of the AHL for two seasons. In his second campaign, he led the league in wins with 33.
From there, he was promoted to share goaltending duties with Trevor Kidd in Calgary. In a Flames' sweater, Roloson finally got a chance to face the vigor's of NHL shooters on a more regular basis. But perhaps that wasn't such a great thing. Through his experiences, it has been observed that his strengths lay in his ability to come off the bench cold and to heat up in seconds. He put in some spectacular performances under such circumstances.
After four seasons in the Flames organization, Roloson signed as a free agent in 1998 with the Buffalo Sabres. In Buffalo, Roloson found a perfect fit as a backup to one of the premier netminders in the NHL, Dominik Hasek. Roloson picked up a mitt-full of games over two seasons and appeared to be set for life until the young backstopper Martin Biron fell into the Sabres' plans. As a result, Roloson was left unprotected in the Expansion Draft and was picked up by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2000.
Instead of heading to Ohio, Roloson opted to sign as a free agent with the St. Louis Blues' organization. As such, he spent the season with the Blues' AHL affiliate in Worcester. Then, during the summer of 2001, he signed as a free agent with the Minnesota Wild. After playing in a career high 45 games in 2001-02, Roloson went on to play in 50 games the following year, finishing with a 23-16-8 record and 2.00 GAA, while helping the Wild clinch their first playoff birth in franchise history.
Following a strong season in 2002-03, Roloson continued his strong play with the Wild, yet the club would struggle and ended up missing the post season. Over the course of four seasons in Minnesota, Roloson shared goaltendig duties with Manny Fernandez and in the latter stages of the 2005-06 season was dealt to the Edmonton Oilers.
In his first season as a member of the Edmonton Oilers, the Simcoe, Ontario native was solid between the pipes and led the club into the 2006 NHL playoffs. Roloson's sensational and consistent play throughout the playoffs guided a Cinderella Oilers club to their first Stanley Cup Final since 1990. Sadly, Roloson's playoffs would end early as knee injury suffered in game one caused him to miss the remainder of the series.
On July 1, 2009 Roloson's time in Edmonton would come to an end. He signed with the New York Islanders as an unrestricted free agent.
On January 1, 2011, with the return of Rick DiPietro to the Islanders' lineup, Roloson was deemed the odd man out and was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for defenseman Ty Wishart.
