First Shift 🏒
If the Stars have an MVP in the 2024-25 season so far, it has to be Jake Oettinger.
Not only does the 25-year-old goalie rank among the NHL leaders in wins (11), GAA (2.23) and save percentage (.918), he continues to steer a Stars team that is trying to find its way.
After losing Joe Pavelski to retirement and trying to incorporate three rookie forwards, Dallas has slipped from third in the NHL in scoring (3.59 goals per game) to 12th (3.42). The power play, meanwhile, has fallen from sixth (24.2 percent) to 22nd (17.0 percent). But the team still is among the NHL leaders at 13-6-0 in large part because of the goaltending and team defense. Dallas ranks first overall in goals against (2.32) after ranking eighth last season (2.83), and the penalty kill has gone from eighth (82.0 percent) to fourth (85.7 percent) this season.
Oettinger has been a huge part of that.
Saturday’s 4-2 win in Tampa was a great example. The Stars weren’t on their game early, but Oettinger allowed them to move into the third period tied at 2-2, and his teammates picked him up from there.
“Our game is not where we need it to be, but we had a goaltender steal it for two periods and then he gave us a chance,” said Duchene, who had a goal and an assist in the game. “You have to have a goaltender stand up on certain nights and he was outstanding for us. He gave us a chance to win.”
Oettinger has done that for much of his career. A first-round pick in 2017, Oettinger has already logged 207 regular-season appearances and 47 more in the playoffs. That’s a significant advantage for a goalie. While others are just becoming a No. 1 goalie at 25, Oettinger has youth and experience mixed together.
“I know I have a lot of good things that have gone my way, so I want to take advantage of that,” he said. “I feel I’m in a good place and I can really take the next step forward.”
Already this season, the 6-6 goalie has gone head-to-head with Team USA goalies Connor Hellebuyck and Jeremy Swayman, and on Monday he faced one of his favorite goalies in Andrei Vasilevskiy. Mix all of the talk about winning a Cup, vying for a Vezina and trying to earn a spot on Team USA for the Four Nations Face-off in February, and there’s an awful lot on his mind.
“There’s a lot at stake,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “Jake is off to a great start, I know he’s in the conversation for Four Nations and things like that. Maybe in the summertime he was further down the depth chart, but he’s worked his way up there. There are a lot of good things happening for him and he just needs to keep going.”
The most important role, of course, is serving as the rudder for this ship. Dallas has made the conference finals in each of its first two years under DeBoer, and everyone would like to build on that. So as the team has struggled with scoring and the power play, being able to address those challenges from the right side of the standings is a huge advantage.
