Jake Oettinger is always ready for the moment
A slight smile formed on Pete DeBoer's face Saturday as he nodded along to a reporter's question about Jake Oettinger, the Dallas Stars' starting goalie.
The veteran head coach was being asked if the 24-year-old Oettinger - a native of Lakeville, Minnesota, set to face off against the Minnesota Wild in an opening-round NHL playoff series - needed any help managing his emotions.
"I'm just trying to manage his bank account, make sure he's not buying a couple hundred tickets every game there," DeBoer replied with a chuckle. "I talked to him about that this morning: 'At some point, you can't buy everyone in Minnesota a ticket to come watch you play.'"
DeBoer didn't inject humor into his press conference to avoid answering the question directly. The bench boss simply knows Oettinger will be locked in for Game 1 on Monday night. The netminder's ascension, underlined by an epic 64-save performance against the Calgary Flames in Game 7 of last year's opening round, has been quick and convincing. He's left no doubt in Dallas.
"When you're drawing up what you want in your starting goalie, honestly, he checks all of those boxes," DeBoer told theScore in a recent interview.
"He's the backbone of our team," Stars forward Jason Robertson said.
In a toss-up of a Western Conference playoff bracket, there might not be a bigger X-factor than the gregarious goalie who's made a habit of rising to the occasion. Oettinger is fresh off a regular season worthy of down-ballot Vezina Trophy votes and holds a .956 save percentage in nine career playoff games.
"He absolutely loved every minute he played," Stars goalie coach Jeff Reese said of the Flames series, which ended in heartbreak for Dallas despite Oettinger's Herculean efforts. "He loved the hostile environment. He loved the pressure of the playoffs. And, guess what, he was smiling the whole time."
Dallas, the Central Division's No. 2 seed with a 47-21-14 record, is in this position today thanks to four slick moves at the draft table in Chicago six years ago.
The first move: selecting Miro Heiskanen with the third pick. The second: sending the 29th (acquired via trade a year earlier) and 70th picks to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for No. 26. Third: using that 26th pick to select Oettinger. Fourth: selecting Robertson at No. 39.
Those wide-eyed teenagers - one defenseman, one goalie, one forward - have since blossomed into foundational pieces of the Stars' present and future.
"You're just trying to get the best player at the time," general manager Jim Nill recalled of the 2017 draft. "We knew we had a cornerstone in Miro, and we were hoping the goalie would be something. After that, it's all about how they develop, and they've developed better than we ever thought they would."
Hitting home runs off three picks in the same draft is like strapping a jetpack onto a team's trajectory. Now in their early 20s, Oettinger, Heiskanen, and Robertson are surrounded by an over-30 cohort led by Jamie Benn, Joe Pavelski, and Tyler Seguin and an under-30 group headlined by Roope Hintz, Wyatt Johnston, and Nils Lundkvist. Meanwhile, blue-chip prospects Logan Stankoven and Mavrik Bourque could be on the roster as early as this fall.
Oettinger turned pro in 2019 after three years at Boston University. He then split three seasons between the AHL and NHL, sharing the big-club load with Anton Khudobin, Braden Holtby, and Scott Wedgewood after Ben Bishop's career-ending knee injury hastened a new era. But the No. 1 spot on the Stars' goaltending depth chart wasn't his out of training camp until this year.
He recorded a .919 save percentage (tied for sixth in the league) and five shutouts (tied for second) over 62 games this season. He also posted impressive underlying numbers despite playing behind a strong defensive group. For one, his 0.16 goals saved above expected per 60 minutes ranked seventh out of 66 goalies with 1,000 minutes played, per Sportlogiq.
"Where has he improved? I'd say just his consistency," Nill said. "He's got a level of play he can get to, and now he's learning to do that every game."
"We think we're set in net for the next eight, nine, 10 years," the GM added.
At 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds, Oettinger is a presence between the pipes. He's also athletic, smart, and technically sound. His current scouting report lacks a glaring weakness, especially after he made a concerted effort over the past 12 months to narrow his stance and sharpen his puck-handling skills.
"It's helped with my reads, and I'm a lot more patient than when I first got to the NHL," Oettinger said of his narrowed stance. "I was always like, 'Oh, I've got to be way out because these guys are so good.' Now I know I can make saves from everywhere. I'm confident that I can stop anyone. If that means I have to be back in my net a bit more so I can get over to a pass, no problem."
Oettinger's mental makeup is, to circle back on DeBoer's comment, another box checked on the "what you want in your starting goalie" list. It begins with his daily interactions with Stars personnel.
"I'm pretty laid back, in general," Oettinger said. "I like to hang out with the guys and be amongst the group. I don't isolate myself on the road or on game days with superstitions. I have a couple of things I do, but it's nothing out of the ordinary that you wouldn't see from a forward or a defenseman."
Dante Fabbro, the Nashville Predators defenseman and Oettinger's teammate in college, found Oettinger to be a magnetic force in the BU dressing room. "Almost immediately, you gravitated towards him, with how likable a guy he is," said Fabbro, who remains close friends with Oettinger.
"Most normal goalie you'll ever find. Almost the opposite of what you would think of with a goalie," said Stars forward Ty Dellandrea.
Reese has been an NHL goalie or goalie coach nearly every season since 1988. He's worked with plenty of oddballs, including the legendarily eccentric Ilya Bryzgalov. "Jake's as normal as they get," Reese said.
Oettinger, who's in the first season of a three-year deal carrying a $4-million annual cap hit, tries not to take himself too seriously. "When I'm not at the rink," he said, "I try to not think about goaltending." Whether it's spent on the golf course, at a restaurant, or whatever, time with family and friends is sacred.
"It's in the goalie's job description to ride the highs and the lows," Oettinger noted. He later added, "It's a long season. Unplugging is how I stay sane."
Danton Cole, Oettinger's coach at the U.S. National Team Development Program from 2014-16, used a golf analogy to describe Oettinger's mindset.
"An elite goalie kind of has to be like a golfer. Hit one in the woods? You have to forget about it. You have to focus on the next shot or you'll lose your mind," Cole said. "Jake, in that sense, was outstanding when he was with us at the program. He was rarely fazed, and that carried over to the rest of the team."
Virtually every person interviewed for this story brought up Oettinger's demeanor around the team. It's some blend of composure and confidence.
"What is the difference between a backup and a No. 1?" Reese asked rhetorically. "Some of it is physical, of course, but so, so much of it is mental. And Jake's a special individual mentally. Very mentally tough. Very special in that department. And the bottom line is, he has a great perspective on life."
Being mentally tough doesn't mean Oettinger isn't hard on himself. Case in point: In late March, he pointed the finger inward following a disappointing 5-4 overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken.
"Let in 10 goals in the last two games. Something's got to change," a frustrated Oettinger told reporters. "The guys have scored like crazy, so it's on me to keep the puck out of our net, and I haven't done that."
How Oettinger bounced back after the Kraken game didn't go unnoticed internally or around the league. He saved 180 of 191 shots for a .942 save percentage over his final eight regular-season contests, seven of them victories.
"If there's anything I know about him," Fabbro said, "he's never satisfied."
It can be easy to forget Oettinger's relative youth. He wears No. 29 because as a kid he idolized Marc-Andre Fleury, who at 38 may start for Minnesota on Monday. A Fleury Fathead cutout hung on Oettinger's bedroom wall until his mid-teens and last year he met the affable veteran before a head-to-head matchup, receiving a souvenir goalie stick from Fleury in the process.
Fleury, with 544 regular-season wins and three Stanley Cup rings, has earned a spot in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Nothing's guaranteed in hockey, let alone goaltending, but Oettinger's ceiling is just as high.
"There's still parts of his game we want to improve. He wants to get better. (Tampa Bay Lightning superstar) Andrei Vasilevskiy is the ceiling," Reese said. "Winning championships is what's next. That's when you're at the pinnacle. He looks at a guy like Vasi and wants to get to where Vasi's at. We've got a long way to go. But, as far as upside, if he continues with this attitude and wants to get better every day, he will get better every day."
Stars assistant coach Steve Spott has joked about how easy Reese's job is these days. By all accounts, Oettinger is a goalie coach's dream.
"Spotter thinks it's a crime to get paid to do this," Reese said with a hearty laugh. "He's probably right. I probably shouldn't get paid to coach this kid."
John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email ([email protected]).