Before Olympic orientation camp and another training camp in Frisco, Texas, Oettinger was in Stamford, Connecticut, for sessions with Ben Prentiss, his strength and conditioning coach, and showed up for mental health at the third annual Shoulder Check Showcase on July 24. He was 36-18-4 with a 2.59 goals-against average, .909 save percentage and two shutouts in 58 starts last season, and outplayed Hart and Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck during a six-game win against the Jets in the Western Conference Second Round.
That wasn't good enough. Like he told the media two days after the Stars' ouster, he needs to remember “all that B.S."
"You build off of everything that you've done in your career," Oettinger said. "Every season you learn something, and you hope that all the disappointment at the end of the day, you finally get over the hump and it makes all the stuff that you went through worth it. All the things that have happened to me in the past, whether good or bad, I'm trying to stack those things and then hopefully they'll be worth it at the end."
The Stars fired DeBoer on June 6 and hired Glen Gulutzan for his second head coaching stint in Dallas. Among Gulutzan's first words were the need to be "pushing this thing one degree." If it's Stanley Cup or bust, that one degree must include Oettinger being better than the goalie whose 108 wins and 2.55 GAA since 2022-23 rank second behind Hellebuyck and a .912 save percentage that's fourth (minimum 150 games) in the League.
This season is the first of an eight-year, $66 million contract ($8.25 million average annual value) he signed Oct. 17, 2024. His crown will be heavy.
Or will it?
"I would say no," Prentiss said. "I think he understands, through good and bad, that hockey, especially such a team sport, and his failure or success, is not just predicated on him alone. He carries himself with this really quiet confidence and with dignity. I know that's a word we don't use for many twentysomethings, but he really does."
He's shaken but not stirred. The Stars' faith in him is unequivocal.
"He's the guy we can trust every night," defenseman Miro Heiskanen said at the NHL/NHLPA European Player Media Tour in Milan, Italy. "He's mentally strong. I don't see there being any problems with him."
Oettinger earned it with a coming-out party when he held the Calgary Flames to 13 goals (1.81 GAA, .954 save percentage) in the 2022 first round, his 64 saves in Game 7 not enough to prevent a 3-2 overtime loss at Scotiabank Saddledome. He and the Stars reached the conference final the following season, a six-game loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. Offseason ankle surgery came next and he missed nearly a month with a groin injury sustained in the first period of a 5-4 win against the Ottawa Senators on Dec. 15, 2023.
Then came the back-to-back eliminations by the Oilers, the Stars outscored 19-5 after a 6-3 win in Game 1 last season. Oettinger's GAA the remainder of the best-of-7 series was 4.23 and the save percentage .841, another in a line of near misses that includes watching from the bench as Hellebuyck's backup when the United States lost 3-2 in OT to Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game at TD Garden on Feb. 20.
"He's been through adversity," said Jeff Reese, a trusted confidant in his 10th season as Stars goaltending coach. "That's not something I can coach. You have to live it. You have to go through it.
"I really like the way Jake handled it. He took the high road, and I'll take the high road as well. I believe that what happened at the end of the season, we're going to look at it as a situation where he can get better and I can get better."
An idea floated during offseason meetings is a less-is-more approach with Oettinger and backup Casey DeSmith. The former played 3,410:04, seventh in the League. DeSmith won 14 games and had a .915 save percentage in 27 games (24 starts) of his age 33 season. The schedule is constricted with the Olympics and Oettinger likely playing for Team USA.
"We're going to use both guys, there's no question," Reese said. "Do I have a specific number I would like to keep them at? Yeah. We have a very good second goalie. He played like a 1B last year."
There's a quote inside Prentiss Hockey Performance that the owner paraphrased, "Keep your head down in success and your head up in failure." About 10 minutes south, Oettinger kept a promise to attend the Shoulder Check for the HT40 Foundation in memory of Hayden Thorsen, a 16-year-old goalie who took his own life May 21, 2022.
It was a healing balm.
"It's not always glamorous, the lifestyle," Oettinger said. "You go through a lot in your own head. To have people reach out and check in on you is really important. I have a lot of people like that. Now I know what that means to me.
"Every season, I just try to go into the start of the season feeling it's really grateful to be where I am. You can be grateful every day for the position you're in and then have a long and fun career."
A month later, Oettinger was in Henderson, Nevada, for the NHL/NHLPA North American Player Media Tour, where word got back to him about DeBoer reflecting on how he handled the fallout of the conference final, saying "We were all to blame."
The response was appreciation. Then it was onto a new season and another chance. Prentiss was clear that Oettinger has yet to peak. Neither have the Stars. They need each another to find that one degree.
"He's going to bounce back," forward Roope Hintz said. "He's our rock and he's always been there."
NHL.com senior director of editorial Shawn P. Roarke and staff writers Tracey Myers and Mike Zeisberger contributed to this report
