Is the Jake Oettinger contract good for the Dallas Stars?
By Greg Higgins
Been complaining about it all summer and finally the Dallas Stars answered the call. Late last week, it came out that they signed Jake Oettinger to a three year contract worth $12 million.
Is this the best thing for the Dallas Stars?
Ok, this isn’t exactly what I was calling for. I wanted the Dallas Stars to break the bank for this guy. If for nothing else, because of what he did against the Calgary Flames in the first round of the playoffs this year. As mentioned before, the Dallas Stars only had a shot in that series because of the way Jake Oettinger played.
So, to see the amount of the contract was a bit surprising at first. The Dallas Stars still have cap space and could have given him more. That was until I saw a tweet from Bruce Levine:
Otter is signed !!
— Bruce LeVine (@BruceLeVinePuck) September 1, 2022
Bridge deal that makes sense for both sides. Oettinger gets a decent AAV (4 million) and the Stars get shorter term (3 years) to see how he develops. If all goes according to plan, Otter's next deal will involve a Brinks Truck to deliver the payment. pic.twitter.com/BIKia55Hal
After reading that tweet from Levine, I thought it about it more. And I have to agree with him. The worst thing that could happen for the Dallas Stars is to give Oettinger a ton of money and then in two years he doesn’t turn out to be who they thought he was going to be. He is young and still has some growing to do.
At this moment he looks like the real deal. However, we have all seen situations in which someone looked the part and started off hot only to cool off after a couple of years. This contract kind of fixes that for Dallas. It gives them the opportunity, as Levine pointed out, to make sure he is going to be the goalie going forward.
It does something else too. It still gives them a little flexibility with the Jason Robertson deal. Right now, the Dallas Stars have $6.3 million in cap space. I can imagine they’re probably going to have to do something similar with Robertson. The last thing Dallas needs to do is get into more bad contract situations. For instance, Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn are making nearly $10 million a year. A piece!
Benn has three more years on his deal and Seguin has five still. The problem is the production drop off for both these players. If they pick it up this year than this will all be a moot point. But if they don’t then this point gets amplified and keeps growing. Especially with some of the young guys that are going to be free agents in the next couple of years.
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For now, the Stars have Oettinger signed. I hope he shows out and gets paid a huge contract in three years. Whether he does or doesn’t, I’ll be here enjoying all the action!