With the 2025-26 NHL season just around the corner, the Dallas Stars two goalies have unveiled their masks for the year.
Starting goaltender Jake Oettinger’s mask features a very muscular otter with a fierce snarl, as seen in photos on social media.
Backup goaltender Casey DeSmith also showed off a new mask with a design incorporating a Tyrannosaurus rex. DeSmith credited the dinosaur theme to his 2-year-old daughter going through a “T-Rex phase,” according to Stars reporter Lia Assimakopoulos.
Sports Roundup
Casey DeSmith has a new dinosaur-themed mask this year.
He said his two-year old daughter is going through a T-Rex phase, and he thinks she’ll be excited when she sees it on TV or during warmups. pic.twitter.com/3cY5VgyQth
— Lia Assimakopoulos (@Lassimak) October 3, 2025
The Stars return the same goaltending duo for 2025-26 after the pairing were among the NHL’s best a season ago. Altogether, the Stars’ goaltenders combined for a 2.71 goals-against average (sixth in the NHL) and a .911 save percentage (fourth in the NHL) last regular season.
Just getting into the top eight in the East to make the playoffs is tough to crack for those on the outside looking in.
Aside from the Panthers, the Toronto Maple Leafs remain contenders, and there’s a revived rivalry brewing between Ottawa and Montreal.
Twelve years after GM Jim Nill fired Gulutzan, he re-hired the former Stars head coach this summer for another go-around.
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