With the Dallas Stars exiting in the first round of the 2026 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, goaltender Jake Oettinger is once again reminded of the targets he missed and the hardware missing from his trophy case.
“I don’t feel like I accomplished any of my goals,” Oettinger said, via Lia Assimakopoulos of the Dallas Morning News.
“I want to win a Stanley Cup, I want to win a Vezina Trophy, and I want to be a starting goalie for Team USA, and none of those things happened.”
Oettinger’s admission came after the Stars got bounced out in the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs by the Minnesota Wild. The Stars held a 2-1 series lead before losing the next three games, largely because of a subpar defense. In the final three games of the series, the Wild outscored Dallas, 12-6.
Oettinger and the Stars made it to three consecutive conference finals before Minnesota showed them the door. With the Stanley Cup out of the picture this season, Oettinger also can’t look forward to winning the Vezina Trophy, as he was not named a finalist for the award. While he won a gold medal with Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics, it was Connor Hellebuyck who enjoyed the spotlight in front of the net.
Nevertheless, Oettinger did the right thing by setting lofty goals for himself.
He finished his 2025-26 NHL season with a 35-12-6 record and a 2.59 goals against average.
