A look at Jake Oettinger's performance thus far

It's been quite good.

Jake Oettinger made 43 saves last night in a 4-3 Dallas Stars victory against the Calgary Flames.

It was Oettinger’s busiest night of the season, it was the first time Dallas has allowed more than 40 shots, and was reminiscent, I’m sure, for Calgary fans of the series in 2022 where Oettinger put together the most impressive single-series goaltending experience many of us have ever seen.

As a reminder, in that series, which Calgary won in seven games, Oettinger was 7-for-7 on quality starts, stopped 272 of 285 shots and had a goals saved above average of 11.9.

Dallas lost that series, but Oettinger emerged as a bona fide No. 1 in the eyes of the NHL community in that moment.

Oettinger, now 24, has his sights set on being the best goalie in the world. It’s a confident swagger and, honestly, a goal that could potentially be reached with proper load management and consistency.

So, like we did yesterday with Ville Husso in Detroit, let’s take a deeper look at the start to Oettinger’s 2023-24 season.

In six games, all starts, Oettinger has a .939 save percentage and 1.95 goals against average. Of NHL starters, filtering backup statistical outliers like Jonathan Quick and James Reimer, the Stars No. 1 goalie has been arguably the NHL’s most efficient starter alongside Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko.