‘There’s only one net’: Hockey frenemies Hellebuyck, Oettinger on battle for Team USA Olympic No. 1 job

Sep 11, 2025, 12:12 EDTUpdated: Sep 11, 2025, 12:13 EDT

Credit: May 17, 2025; Dallas, Texas, USA; Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck (37) shakes hands with Dallas Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger (29) after the Stars defeat the Jets in the overtime period in game six of the second round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

LAS VEGAS – Hockey seems destined to bring Connor Hellebuyck and Jake Oettinger together these days, whether they’re friends or enemies, teammates or competitors.

Last season was a perfect example. They opened it as the star No. 1 goaltenders on two Central Division rivals, the Winnipeg Jets and Dallas Stars, respectively. They paused the standings race midseason to become teammates, tending the goal for Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off, with Hellebuyck functioning as the starter. Then they turned foes again for Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs, with Oettinger’s Stars taking down Hellebuyck’s Jets in six games.

They seem destined to ride a similar rollercoaster together in 2025-26. The Jets are fresh off a Presidents’ Trophy campaign, the Stars looking to break through after losing three consecutive Western Conference Finals, and the 2026 Olympics loom in the background.

When it comes to Milan, it feels like a lot is at stake for both netminders – because the No. 1 job in the American net isn’t locked in. On one hand, Hellebuyck remains the top puck-stopper on the planet in the eyes of many, fresh off winning consecutive Vezina Trophies, his second and third overall, and taking home the Hart Trophy as league MVP, becoming the first to do so since Carey Price in 2014-15. To open the 2025 NHL calendar, the net is likely still Hellebuyck’s to lose. While he hasn’t broken through to become a championship goaltender, his individual NHL accolades are almost peerless this generation. He and Marty Brodeur are the only goalies to win three Vezinas this century.

On the other hand: Hellebuyck’s playoff struggles left quite a sour impression to close out last season. He surrendered five or more goals four times in 13 appearances and struggled mightily on the road, posting an .866 save percentage for the postseason overall. The good news is that, speaking to reporters at the Player Media Tour this week, Hellebuyck feels like he’s diagnosed the problem.

“[These] playoffs, I took a big look at my game, thought maybe I could add some here, tweak something there, and that’s typical stuff you do during the regular season too,” He said. “But once I did that, I didn’t like it. I didn’t like the look of the game. I thought I was out of what makes me me. So I actually went back to just playing my game. And you’ve really got to look at the whole picture. I know there were a couple bad games in there, goals-against wise. But if you take those out of the picture, I felt like I had a good playoffs. It’s just those big losses make everything else seem so much worse.”

Hellebuyck was mostly effective in the American net at the 4 Nations, posting a .932 SV% for the tourney, but he also couldn’t outduel Canada’s Jordan Binnington in the deciding championship overtime. Couple that result with the shaky Stanley Cup playoffs, and factor in that USA did not name Hellebuyck as one of its First Six players for Milan, and it certainly feels like the door is open for a challenger. Oettinger, who started one game for the Americans at the 4 Nations, is pretty clearly in a tier of his own at No. 2 in the pecking order and thus the top threat to steal the job.

So do the two netminders consider the first half of this coming season an open competition?

“Well, it’s always competition,” Hellebuyck told Daily Faceoff. “If I go and have a horrible start to the season, well then I don’t deserve to be in the net. They’re going to put whoever’s going to give them the best chance to win in that net. And all I’ve got to do is go play my game the way I know how and bring that consistent game. And I feel like when I’m confident and playing my best, I belong in the net. So those guys [Oettinger, Jeremy Swayman, etc.] are excellent goalies, and they could easily push me out – they could have an awesome start to the year – but I can’t worry about what they’re doing. I want them to play their best. I want them to be their at their best. That just makes the league better, it makes the team better. I’ve just got to worry about myself and put my best foot forward.”

“Obviously I want to be on that team, and that’s in the back of my mind, but I’m just trying to focus on having a great start,” Oettinger told Daily Faceoff. “And I’ll look at it that way – really trying to not be looking at his games seeing how he did himself. I just I feel like if I make that team then all I want to do is just get one start and show I can play really well. So that’s all I’m focused on. And obviously USA has a ton of great goalies, which is awesome. but however many of us, they all want that spot. There’s only one net, so I need to get off to a great start, and that’s what I’m focused on.”

The veteran Hellebuyck, 32, and the ascending star Oettinger, 26, are head to head whether they want to perceive it that way or not, and it’s possible their performances against each other will swing the momentum toward one or the other becoming the USA starter. Three of the Jets’ and Stars’ four meetings this season will come before the Olympic break. But enemies would be too strong a word to describe their relationship despite the Central rivalry. Hellebuyck, Oettinger and Swayman really enjoyed teaming up at the 4 Nations and sponging up information from each other.

“Yeah, it was great,” Oettinger said. “I feel like I learned a lot from him and took things that he did in his day-to-day routine that I really like that worked for me and I implemented. And just getting to know him a little bit, he’s very cerebral, thinks about the game a lot. Ben Bishop was the same way [in Dallas], and I learned a lot from him, so getting to spend time with both those guys I feel like has helped me with hockey IQ and maybe changed the way I think about things.”

“It was cool seeing some new guys around the league, and you get to play against them, but you don’t get to see how they practice and how they go about their day-to-day,” Hellebuyck said. “And that’s the part that I really like, because you see how guys built their game, built their off-ice around their on-ice game, which is cool. How they warm up, how they work out, how they conduct themselves, that’s what sets guys apart from each other. And I’m not saying one’s worse than the other, it’s just how did they get to their end path. It’s really cool being around those guys. We get along pretty well, and just being able to chat goaltending with other goalies is so much fun for me.”

Once Hellebuyck and Oettinger report to team USA in Milan, we can bet they’ll continue working well together. But in the meantime: game on. The net is open.

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