Jake Oettinger could have signed his first professional contract a year ago.
He could have left Boston University after his sophomore season, started a pro career last spring and entered this season with good odds of playing AHL games as a 19-year-old.
It’s a move the Dallas Stars certainly would have co-signed, and they had lengthy conversations with Oettinger about leaving college after his sophomore season. His dream was, and still is, to become the Stars’ starting goalie.
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Dallas made the same pitch to their other top goalie prospect, Colton Point, who decided to make the jump and turned pro after his sophomore campaign at Colgate.
But it wasn’t the right choice for Oettinger, who made the rather mature decision that he wasn’t ready for pro hockey.
“I still felt they I had some developing that I needed to do, and when you make a decision like that you want to make sure you are 100 percent ready,” Oettinger said. “After after last year, I couldn’t have honestly told myself I was ready to go.”
The Stars could have pressed further with their first-round pick from the 2017 NHL Draft, taken 26th overall, but they tapped the breaks and let the goalie go with his gut. Similar to the way the Stars let John Klingberg remain in Sweden for one extra year rather than come over to the AHL when the Stars asked if he wanted to during the 2013-14 season.
“I’m not going to be successful down here if that’s not what I really want,” Oettinger said. “Obviously every NHL team wants to get their prospects signed as soon as they can and Dallas was the same way. At the same time, when I wanted to go back, they were onboard and they were in. The fact they give you the opportunity to make the decisions on your own, that’s something I admire a lot and respect a lot. Jim (Nill) allows you to make that decision and let it come from your heart. That’s something that’s pretty unique in this business and I don’t take it for granted.”
A year later Oettinger, now 20, signed his first pro contract with the Stars on Monday and practiced with the Texas Stars on Tuesday. After his first pro practice, Oettinger said both he and the Stars are likely in a better spot with him getting another year as the Terriers’ starting goalie.
“This year I felt like that was I much stronger. Of all the years I played at BU, this is the one that I’ve developed the most in one year,” Oettinger said. “I feel great in where my game is at. So I decided I’m ready for the next challenge.”
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Oettinger didn’t just grow as a goalie during the past season, but also as an overall hockey player. That might sound like an odd statement, but most starting NHL goalies — particularly successful ones — tend to be among the sport’s more cerebral and understanding individuals.
Mental approach is often the difference between a good goalie and a great one, and it often can be that invisible wall that prevents a player’s graduation from the AHL to the NHL.
Oettinger became more of a student of the game. He did his own video work on a frequent basis with Boston University goalie coach Brian Eklund, he watched hundreds of NHL games, and as an assistant captain he became more involved and better understood what happened in the game in front of him.
“I couldn’t just focus on myself,” Oettinger said. “I really realized that guys were looking at me in every aspect of my life and tried to really set an example, whether it was how I prepared or how I recovered … I think by focusing on trying to lead by example I also ended up focusing on all those little details that make you a great player.”
He evolved further from a reactive goalie to a prepared goalie, one who was readying himself before shots even had the potential to be launched his way.
“It comes down to hockey sense and being able to read a play and read the game,” Oettinger said. “I used to go out there and was just playing, not really having a gameplan, I think this year I really focused on my gameplan and I think you just can’t go into a game and see what happens at the next level you. Have to have a gameplan and see what happens, that was the biggest part of my game that got better this year.”
These are the types of details you really wouldn’t notice unless you were actively looking for them or trying to find fault when watching the replay of a goal against.
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For example, Oettinger changed his approach to opponents entering the offensive zone. As a freshman and sophomore he would often charge to the top of his crease as soon as the other team crossed the red line; he was amped and ready to go.
But you don’t need to be amped when the puck is at center ice. Instead Oettinger worked on staying calm in his stance, standing deeper in his crease and letting the play come to him.
With this approach, Oettinger has become better prepared for how teams will attack his zone. Opponents can do a number of things at the offensive blue line, and often times blasting to the top of the crease when the puck is at the red line leads to a wasted movement or unneeded reset and recovery.
“If you are out at the top of your crease when the team enters the zone, and so often now it’s preached by coaches to enter a zone and make a play,” Eklund said. “So being so far out on the top of your crease you have to make these extreme angle changes. So what we started doing in the second half of last season was having him wait and attack out once the puck crosses the blue line. That minor change and timing, it took a couple months to get used to because his entire life he had been attacking out at the red line, it made a massive change with his angles and the amount of work he actually had to do in game.”
This was something that Eklund actually discussed with Stars goalie coach Jeff Reese. At one point Eklund sent a clip to Reese of a certain save by Oettinger. It was a highlight-reel stop, but Reese’s first response was, “Why was he in that spot?”
That sparked further discussion. Reese sent clips of how Stars goalie Ben Bishop approaches oncoming rushes, and while it took some adjusting, Oettinger started to feel fresher and had had better energy throughout the game due to the number of micro-movements he was cutting out of his workload.
With that as a base, Oettinger and Eklund worked further on the goalie’s positioning this season.
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“We worked on where his hips are angled at when plays are coming down the walls,” Eklund said. “We want him facing more, especially when the play starts getting to bad areas like below the dots. If you were to draw a line (from) the goal to the dot, once the puck kind of gets down to that pit area of the rink there is no need for him to be really square to that play anymore, essentially that’s where the spot you get set for the next play.”
The coaches also worked on narrowing Oettinger’s stance. Before the alterations Oettinger was getting wider, essentially locking himself into his stance and eliminating some of his athleticism. In general a goalie has more explosive power from a more compact stance, so Oettinger worked on getting his feet closer to under his shoulders.
The stance alteration is a minor detail, but one that can easily be forgotten without care and attention. Oettinger is well aware of that, and during his final practice on Boston University’s campus earlier this week, he was working on that stance and plans to make it part of his daily routine during his remaining practices this season with Texas.
“Just having a solid foundation and doing the same thing the same way every time is really important for me,” Oettinger said. “You might work on one thing at a time or add something, but you are going to do it the same way every time (in practice) and that really added consistency to my game.”
Oettinger looks like a much better goalie when you compare film from his freshman year to junior season and he clearly did the work. Why were his junior season stats only slightly improved from past seasons?
“His freshman year was largely him playing with house money and he was amazing, but he had an amazing team in front of him that helped him out and bailed him out of a lot of situations,” Eklund said. “And everything kind of hit perfectly as that year went. His sophomore year he hit adversity. When you lose Clayton Keller and you lose Charlie McAvoy standing in front of you, you lose a lot of possession time. So the other team got better Grade-A, quality scoring chances, so he had to change how he played, and he learned.”
Oettinger’s ability to learn and adapt really defined his push as a prospect the Stars are hoping will become the first in-house starting goalie since Marty Turco.
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Oettinger finished high school a year early so he could enroll at Boston University as an 17-year-old freshman. It was an easy decision in principle, but difficult in application.
“I think the graduating high school a year early was the toughest part, because no one else was doing it,” Oettinger said. “I was basically doing classes in the middle of the summer while the rest of my buddies were golfing. I have to give credit to my stepmom, Kelly, she was my academic advisor, so to speak, during those two summers taking online classes. Wasn’t the most fun thing I’ve ever done, but it put me in a position to go to BU early and looking back at that if I hadn’t done that I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
Graduating high school in three years also set a standard for Oettinger from an academic standpoint. While he could have returned to Boston University for his senior season, he’s on track to finish his degree with a major in communications and a minor in business management this summer.
Before he returns to Boston to finish his degree, Oettinger is focused on the remainder of this season with the Texas Stars, who are in a pack of teams fighting for a playoff spot in the AHL’s Central Division. At this point Oettinger said he doesn’t know what the plan is for when or if he’d play for Texas; that’s out of his control. but his parents are headed to Des Moines this weekend, and it would be a nice perk if they could watch his first pro game when Texas visits the Iowa Wild.
For both the remainder of this season and the next, Oettinger is part of a logjam of young goalies the Stars have in the minors. Landon Bow is the starter in Texas and has played in two NHL games this season, while Philippe Desrosiers and Point also have the same career goal that Oettinger is carrying.
“I think it’s healthy; obviously, everyone is here because they want to play at the NHL level,” Oettinger said. “At the end of the day I’m going to have to beat some great goalies if I want to get where I want to at the end of the day. That’s no different if there are three other guys pushing for the same goal. So I’m gonna work and when I get my number called I’m gonna be ready to go.”
(Photo by Richard T Gagnon/Getty Images)
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