Jake Oettinger: superfan and rising star goaltender, rolled into one

Matt Larkin
Matt Larkin(MLarkinHockey)
Jake Oettinger: superfan and rising star goaltender, rolled into one

Meeting your hero is surreal for anyone. But imagine being a big enough fan to own a toy of that person…and then you play opposite them in an NHL game.

That’s what happened to goaltender Jake Oettinger on Feb. 18, 2022 when his Dallas Stars took on the Chicago Blackhawks. At the time, they had Marc-Andre Fleury tending goal. ‘Flower,’ along with Henrik Lundqvist, was a defining idol of Oettinger’s childhood. He had a ‘Fat Head’ Fleury doll in his room growing up. So Oettinger was giddy to go head to head. Even better, in a scenario straight out of a daydream, the Stars won 1-0 in a shootout. Oettinger even walked away with another souvenir, courtesy of Fleury: a signed stick.

Oettinger, 23, is quickly becoming a dominant NHL goaltender. He’s one of the league’s reigning three stars of the week and has been pretty much untouchable to start 2022-23, stopping 84 of 87 shots for a .966 save percentage in three games, all Dallas wins. But even as his stardom grows seemingly by the day, he has never stopped being a fan. He follows player movement and league news as much as your average radio show caller. He gets just as excited for free agency day as the fans who live and die by it do. He also admires his NHL counterparts not just as a competitor, but as someone relishing the experience of playing against them.

Look at how Oettinger describes some of the greats. How about Andrei Vasilevskiy?

“I’ll watch him and he’s in positions where it kind of grosses me out. I don’t know what would happen to my body if I tried to do that. He’s a freak athlete.”

How about Oettinger on reigning Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin?

“Shesterkin could shoot it off the roof if he wanted to, and I can barely lift it off the ice.”

Once you understand how much Oettinger appreciates being an NHL goalie, what happened last spring against the Calgary Flames starts to make more sense. It has quickly become the accomplishment for which Oettinger is best known.

Seven games, his team outshot 287-195, and he managed an incredible 272 saves on 285 shots for a .954 SV%. He stopped 39 shots in Game 3, 50 shots in Game 4 and a ludicrous 64 shots in Game 7, which the Flames won in double overtime. He became the second goalie to make 60 or more saves in a Game 7 since 1955, when the NHL first began tracking shots. Oettinger saved 11.90 goals above average in the series – second only to Igor Shesterkin’s 11.91 for the entire playoffs even though Oettinger lasted just one round. He was that good.

“It is the best hockey I’ve ever played for sure,” he told Daily Faceoff a few weeks before this season began. “Playoffs, obviously everyone’s watching and it’s a great opportunity to step up big time for your team. It was the most fun hockey I’ve ever played, and Calgary is such an unbelievable place to play, especially in the playoffs. The atmosphere in Calgary and in Dallas is something I’ll never forget.”

Seeing that much rubber was actually a joy for him. That’s where the fan mentality probably comes into play.

“It’s so much fun,” he said. “At that point you’re not even thinking at all. You’re just playing and battling. I don’t think Jacob Markstrom gets enough credit for how well he played in that game and in that series. I would’ve rather been in my position than his, not seeing (as many) shots.”

So yes, Oettinger’s love for the game makes him better suited than most to absorb a legendary barrage of rubber. But let’s not sell him short. From a pure technical perspective, he’s suited to the gig because he’s a darn good goaltender, blessed with a 6-foot-5, 220-pound frame, strong skating ability and the calm demeanor characteristic of a workhorse No. 1. The Stars recognized his array of tools when they interviewed him at the 2017 NHL Draft Combine.

“We all saw him and he was an easy target, really, to go and see,” said Stars director of amateur scouting Joe McDonnell. “There was just something that all of us loved about his game. Meeting him at the combine, you could just see he was a composed person, No. 1. That is, his ability spoke for itself. But just talking to him, you could see he was very level headed.”

McDonnell was so enamored with Oettinger that he got into GM Jim Nill’s ear on night 1 of the 2017 Draft, late in the first round.

“We get to the draft table and we’re doing down, and I said to Jim, ‘We’ve got to trade up and try to get this guy.’ And Jim made a great deal and we traded up and ended up with him.’ It was all great at the time, and you just hope and pray (laughs).”

The Stars didn’t need to hope and pray too much, because they had the luxury of slow-playing Oettinger’s development in the years after they traded up from 29th to 26th overall to grab him. He was the rare prospect drafted out of the NCAA because he was a late birthday, and he spent a second and third season at Boston University before he turned pro. With a tandem of Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin holding down the net at the NHL level, Oettinger saw starter’s reps at the AHL level with the Texas Stars in 2019-20. After he played 2020-21 in the NHL, with the AHL schedule reduced due to COVID, he saw 10 more AHL appearances to open last season after the Braden Holtby signing created a logjam for Dallas at the NHL level.

So by the time injuries to Bishop, Khudobin and Holtby cleared the crease for Oettinger to get an extended look as the starter last season, Oettinger was a polished product, ready for the NHL responsibility.

It makes what he’s done so far in his career anything but the clichéd overnight success. This was an elite-pedigree stopper, brought along slowly, excelling at every level, and now ‘Otter’ has all the makings of a long-term NHL star. That’s why the Stars felt comfortable committing to him on a three-year bridge pact at a $4 million AAV this offseason.

And that’s why they don’t believe his otherworldly effort last spring will be remembered as his crowning moment for long.

“We’re still going to wait for the crowning moment in June sometime,” McDonnell said.

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