Hawks Missed Out on a Future Vezina Winner

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James
May 18, 2022 (1:47 PM)

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There have only been 14 goaltenders selected in the first round since 2000. Of those 14, three were selected by the Dallas Stars, including the guy who is in the news lately for his insane performance against the Calgary Flames, 23-year-old Jake Oettinger.

His 64-save performance in Game 7 was the stuff of legend. He entered the playoffs as a relative unknown to many but came out of it as a household name. He did everything he could to keep the Stars afloat in their decisive Game 7 against the Flames, including a 24-save effort in the second period alone.

He recorded 272 saves in the series, which is the third most by any goaltender in a playoff series, behind Curtis Joseph (277 in 1993 DF with Toronto) and Jonas Hiller (274 in 2009 CSF with Anaheim).

Oettinger put up a 1.81 goals against average and a .954 save percentage in the series, just crazy numbers. He was no slouch during the regular season as well with a 30-15-1 record, a 2.53 GAA and a .914 SV% in 48 games, basically willing the Stars into the postseason.

But did you know at the 2017 NHL Draft held at the United Center, the Chicago Blackhawks traded down from pick 26 to pick 29? You may be thinking big deal, three spots. With pick 29, the Blackhawks drafted defenseman Henri Jokiharju who was later traded to Buffalo for Alex Nylander. The team that traded up? Dallas, who selected Oettinger.

The Blackhawks had two stellar seasons from their goaltenders in the 2016-17 season so maybe they weren't thinking about grabbing a young netminder. 32-year-old Corey Crawford had a 32-18-4 record with a 2.55 GAA and a .918 SV% in 55 games. His back-up, 28-year-old Scott Darling, was even better with a 18-5-5 mark, a 2.38 GAA and a .924 SV% in 32 games.

But at the conclusion of the season, Darling's rights as a pending free agent were traded to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for a third-round pick in the upcoming draft.

So they were left with just Crawford. Then Stan Bowman made one of his all-time blunders, on the opening day of the draft, sending Artemi Panarin, Tyler Motte and a sixth-round pick in the '17 draft to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Brandon Saad, 24-year-old goalie Anton Forsberg and a fifth-round pick in 2018. So Forsberg was the future, yes? No. He only played one season with the Hawks and another with the Rockford Icehogs before getting shipped to Carolina along with Gustav Forsling in the Calvin de Haan deal.

It's easy to look back now and say that the 18-year-old, 6'4" Oettinger is who the Hawks should have targeted. I'm sure lots of NFL gms wish they took a chance on that Michigan qb instead of letting him fall to New England. There's no such thing as a sure thing.

The Future
But all hope is not lost Hawks fans, well the immediate future appears pretty dim... Chicago selected 18-year-old goaltender Drew Commesso with the 46th pick of the 2020 draft. Commesso has followed in Oettinger's footsteps starting with the U17 U.S. National Team to Boston University, posting comparable numbers to the Stars goaltender.

The 19-year-old also started Team USA's Olympic opener against China. He not only was the youngest goalie to ever start an Olympic game for the Americans, he also posted a 29 save shutout.

The Blackhawks will have the next STUD American netminder if history can repeat itself. But at just 19 years old, Commesso is probably 3-4 years away from being the number one goalie in Chicago. When he arrives though, it will be well worth the wait.