WINNIPEG, Manitoba — It’s not the travel or the condensed schedule, the skill on the ice or the speed of the game that presents the biggest challenge for Stars goaltending prospect Jake Oettinger in his first full year of professional hockey.
It’s all the free time.
Oettinger, the Stars’ first-round pick in 2017, is playing for AHL affiliate Texas after spending three seasons as the starting goaltender at Boston University. With Texas, he no longer has to worry about classes or college social calendars. So he’s turned into a host of sorts.
Oettinger lives with teammate Rhett Gardner in Austin, and in the same building as Nick Caamano and Adam Mascherin, Tye Felhaber and Brad McClure. Oettinger manning the grill has become commonplace, something that fills the vacant swaths of time.
On the ice, things have been more topsy-turvy for the former No. 26 overall pick. Through his first AHL eight games, Oettinger owns an .897 save percentage and a 3.34 goals-against average as Texas has stumbled to a 3-10-0-2 record, including losses in its last nine games.
“For me, I think it’s been a good learning experience so far,” Oettinger said earlier this week before playing Manitoba. “I think I’ve had a lot of highs and a lot of lows. I think that’s going to come with a long season and my first year pro and all that type of stuff.”
A glance at Oettinger’s game logs reveal some inconsistency. In three of his eight games, he’s allowed one goal or fewer. In half of his games, he’s been tagged for at least four goals. His only win of the season was a 28-save shutout of Grand Rapids on Oct. 19, which was Texas’ last win of the young season.
Texas coach Derek Laxdal said Oettinger’s numbers are more of a product of the team’s overall play than an indictment of his performance.
“I know those are individual numbers, but not really,” Laxdal said. “Those are team-focused numbers, and I think our goaltenders are suffering right now from some of our inexperienced play of our group. … We’ve really been discombobulated with our whole look of our group, and I think our goalies are paying the price for it right now. As we move forward and things tighten up, you’re going to see those numbers rise.”
The Stars have allowed the most goals in the AHL, and Oettinger ranks 14th in the league in shots faced despite ranking 25th in time on ice. Laxdal said the Stars are giving up more than 20 scoring chances a game, when they’d like to be around 12 to 15.
On Monday in Manitoba, Oettinger gave up three goals in a five-minute span in the first period, but he could hardly be blamed for them. The first one bounced off the boards behind the net and into the crease for an easy tap-in on a power play. The other two goals came on either breakaways or partial breakaways when Oettinger was not only the last line of defense, he was the only line of defense.
Jake Oettinger made 27 saves for Texas yesterday, and it’s tough to fault him for the three goals against. The first one was a bounce off the boards on the power play, and the other two were breakaway/partial breakaways. pic.twitter.com/iywVkmJIfM
— Matthew DeFranks (@MDeFranks) November 12, 2019
“Sometimes you just need bounces to go your way, and that’s how you’re going to get shutouts,” Oettinger said. “I think, honestly, other than one game this year, I feel like I’ve played well, how I’ve wanted to play. Eventually, you just need bounces to go your way. I think sooner or later, that’s going to start to come for this team.”
Oettinger, 20, is the goaltender of the future for the Stars. While Ben Bishop is one of the league’s best and signed for three more seasons, he’s already 32. Backup Anton Khudobin is an unrestricted free agent after this season. Fellow AHL goalie Landon Bow profiles more as a No. 3 goalie in an organization, and is a restricted free agent after this season.
Oettinger, meanwhile, is one of only three goalies selected in the first round in the last seven NHL drafts.
“With our season right now, I think we have very good goaltending,” Laxdal said. “Obviously, numbers aren’t where [Oettinger] wants them to be, but I think development-wise, he’s probably going on the right track.”
Oettinger said he’s been working with Texas goaltending coach Jim Bedard on his skating, doing about 15 minutes each day in an attempt to cut down small fragments of time in the crease.
“You don’t really think about it when you’re doing it, but then you realize ‘Oh, I got to that spot a lot quicker than I could have before I was doing all this stuff,’” Oettinger said. “Just the foundational skating stuff, being able to get to spots quickly. If you’re in the right spot, you give yourself a better chance of making the save.”
Defensive shuffle: As Dallas has gone through injuries on the back end, Texas has been forced to rearrange its blue line to compensate for recalls and injuries of their own. Plus, the Stars are breaking in Joseph Cecconi and Emil Djuse, who are both in their first year in the AHL.
Dillon Heatherington missed two weeks because of an injury, and Reece Scarlett is dealing with a lower-body injury a season after tearing his ACL.
“When Heater’s not in the lineup, he was hurt there for a couple weeks, that really hurt our back end because he’s the dad back there,” Laxdal said. “He’s a guy that’s trying to get back to the NHL, be an everyday NHL player. But he has to be the leader back there of this young group.”