This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Jake Oettinger
Dallas Stars Goaltender
Six foot six, a career .9129 across 193 games, and the first season that has not gone forward.
| Season | Team | GP | W | L | OTL | GA | GAA | SO | SA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-21 | DAL | 29 | 11 | 8 | 7 | 63 | 2.36 | 1 | 710 | .911 |
| 2021-22 | DAL | 48 | 30 | 15 | 1 | 114 | 2.53 | 1 | 1331 | .914 |
| 2022-23 | DAL | 62 | 37 | 11 | 11 | 144 | 2.37 | 5 | 1776 | .919 |
| 2023-24 | DAL | 54 | 35 | 14 | 4 | 140 | 2.72 | 3 | 1476 | .905 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 193 | 113 | 48 | 23 | 461 | 2.51 | 10 | 5293 | .913 |
This Season So Far
The 2024-25 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
Fifty-four games, 35-14-4, a .9051 save percentage, a 2.72 average and 3 shutouts on 1,476 shots.
Thirty-five wins on a club that took 113 points. The club’s goaltending came in 10.3 goals worse than the chances faced, 23rd in the league, behind the 4th-best chance suppression in hockey — and a career .9129 across 193 games says a .9051 is a step down from his own standard rather than a description of him.
The Physical Game
He is 6-6 and 225 and takes away the top of the net by standing up rather than by reaching. At that size a clean shot from distance has almost nothing to aim at, and the whole game is built around making a shooter take that shot instead of a better one.
The rebound control is good and behind the fourth-best chance suppression in hockey he is very rarely asked to make two. The lateral recovery is the question — the second play across the crease is slower than it is for a smaller goaltender, and a club that moves the puck east-west will find it.
The Mental Game
A hundred and thirteen wins against forty-eight losses at 25, and a reputation built on a playoff series at 23 in which he was the best player on the ice for seven games.
The .9051 is the first season of his career that has gone backwards, and it happened in front of the same defence that produced the .9129. That is the sort of thing that is either variance or the start of something, and one season cannot tell the difference.
The Intangibles
The 26th pick in 2017 out of Lakeville, three years at Boston University, and a starter’s job at 23 on a hundred-point club.
He is 25 and everything this club is built to do assumes he is a top-five goaltender. Last season he was not one.