A young Jake Oettinger sat in the backseat of his family’s SUV, eyes locked on the screen as the opening credits rolled.
“Miracle” — the 2004 film chronicling the 1980 U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team — lived permanently in the car’s DVD player, playing on the screens that folded down from the roof.
Oettinger, not yet 10 years old, and his two siblings watched it on nearly every family trip. Growing up playing hockey in Minnesota, the movie was impossible to escape. He and his teammates were just as mesmerized watching it between games at tournaments. With half of the 1980 roster having played for the Minnesota Golden Gophers, the story was woven into the fabric of the state’s hockey culture.
“I’ve seen that movie 1,000 times,” Oettinger said in a recent interview with The Dallas Morning News. “I always dreamt about it and wanted to be like those guys in the movie. It was just a crazy childhood dream.”
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Two decades later, that dream is far more tangible than young Oettinger — or his family — ever imagined. The Stars goaltender is one of three netminders selected to represent Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. The opening ceremonies begin at 12:40 p.m. CT Friday, with the men’s hockey tournament running Feb. 11-22.
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From the moment he first strapped on goalie pads at age 7, Oettinger’s path to the top of his sport accelerated quickly. At 15, he played in the Minnesota state championship game. Months later, he left home to join the USA National Team Development Program. At 17, he enrolled early at Boston University and won the starting job as a freshman. That offseason, the Dallas Stars selected him in the first round of the NHL Draft, and three years later, he made his NHL debut.
Jake Oettinger poses for photos after being selected 26th overall by the Dallas Stars during the 2017 NHL Draft at the United Center on June 23, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois.
Bruce Bennett / Getty Images
In the league, Oettinger became an All-Star and earned a spot with Team USA at last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off. Even then, his father, Chris Oettinger, hesitated to believe his Olympic dreams would become a reality — until the roster was announced last month.
“You never really think that about your kid,” he said. “The Olympics have to time out a certain way. A lot of things had to happen or fall into place for all of this to come together.”
Those things, as they have throughout Oettinger’s career, fell perfectly into place — a sequence of pivotal decisions that ultimately led him to Dallas and Milan.
“It’s probably one of his greatest achievements so far in his career,” Chris said.
A pivotal decision
One of the hardest conversations Chris ever had was when Jake was 15, telling him it might be best to leave home, even when he wasn’t entirely sure.
Fresh off a runner-up finish in the Minnesota state tournament, Jake was emerging as one of the state’s top young goaltenders. Opportunities were abundant, and most were close to home.
Then came an invitation from the USA Hockey National Team Development Program.
“I didn’t even know what that team was until I got invited to the camp,” Jake said. “I was playing high school hockey in Minnesota, had a great group of friends around me. Our team was really good. It wasn’t even on my radar.
“The hardest week of my life was deciding if I should go or not.”
At the time, the program was based in Ann Arbor, Mich., before relocating roughly 20 miles east to Plymouth. Founded in 1996, it was designed to identify elite players under 18 and centralize their education, training and competition over two years.
It is a direct pipeline to international play, the NHL and, ultimately, the Olympics. As of the 2025 draft, 432 alumni have been drafted into the NHL.
A photo of Dallas Stars’ goaltender Jake Oettinger with his father Chris Oettinger and younger brother Thomas Oettinger.
Courtesy of Chris Oettinger
“You have really tough conversations. He’s a kid. He’s 15,” Chris said. “When you make those types of decisions, all of that is grounded in the fact that you want to be a professional hockey player.
“The hardest part is telling your son I think you should go.”
Oettinger left Minnesota — where he and his family believed the best hockey in the world was played — to train alongside the nation’s top prospects. His teammates included Rangers defenseman Adam Fox and Mammoth forward Clayton Keller. Matthew Tkachuk and Auston Matthews were just a year ahead of him.
Those two years — living with a billet family, working closely with goalie coach Kevin Reiter and competing alongside future NHL stars — became Oettinger’s introduction to USA Hockey and the foundation of his development.
“I needed a ton of work when I got there,” he said. “I was very, very raw. [Reiter] put a ton into me and believed that I could play in college and play in the NHL. Thank God I took that leap. If it wasn’t for that decision, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”
A dream decades in the making
For NHL players — including the seven Dallas Stars competing in this year’s Olympics — managing the grind of a condensed league schedule alongside Olympic play presents a unique challenge.
If last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off offered any preview, the competition will resemble a Stanley Cup Final — only with Olympic gold now at stake.
This marks the first Olympics since 2014 to feature NHL players, and for goaltenders like Oettinger, who are preparing for a playoff push, workload management becomes critical. But it also allows players to stay conditioned and focused as long as they stay healthy.
“They’re very methodical in what they’re doing,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said of his Olympians. “Those guys are just making sure their game is getting dialed in. They seem really focused to me. When you’re going into those tournaments, guys want to have themselves in a good space.”
Unlike some of his Finnish, Canadian and Czech teammates, Oettinger isn’t guaranteed ice time in Milan. Team USA may choose to lean on projected starter and three-time Vezina winner Connor Hellebuyck.
With a few back-to-backs built into the schedule, however, Hellebuyck will need games off. Oettinger will compete with Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman for the backup position.
“I’m just hoping I can get in one game and hopefully play well and see what happens from there,” Oettinger said.
Whether he’s between the pipes or watching from the bench, Oettinger knows he’ll have strong support from back in Dallas, Minnesota and in Milan. About a dozen relatives are planning to make the trip to watch, including his son, Rhodes, who was born in November.
Oettinger said he and wife, Kennedi, recently secured Rhodes’ passport, and they’re hoping he can sleep through the at-least 12-hour flight from Dallas to Milan.
Just as “Miracle” helped ignite his own Olympic dream, Oettinger hopes this experience — and the photos his son may one day look back upon — will spark something similar.
“He’ll be an Olympic golfer,” he said. “That’s my plan.”
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