Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger exits Saturday's game with lower body injury

A serious bit of concerning news came out of the first game on Saturday’s schedule, with the Dallas Stars tweeting that netminder Jake Oettinger was questionable to return to their game against the New York Rangers with a lower body injury. It’s not apparent when Oettinger suffered the injury, and he was replaced in the game by Scott Wedgewood with 13:37 remaining in the second period. Luckily for the team, he was healthy enough to return for the third period but did not play, staying on the bench while Wedgewood continued.

Oettinger has been nothing short of spectacular to open 2022-23. His unreal .960 save percentage and 1.17 goals-against average lead the league through six starts, and he’s undeniably the biggest reason behind the team’s 5-2-1 start to the season. Hopefully, the injury doesn’t keep him out of any further game action past this point.

• Young defenseman Jamie Drysdale was not on the ice Saturday at Anaheim Ducks practice, tweets The Athletic’s Eric Stephens. Drysdale played 7:22 in last night’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights before leaving the game with an upper-body injury, suffered on a hit in the corner from Knights forward William Carrier. The sixth overall selection in 2020 had yet to register a point through eight games this season but had received upwards of 20 minutes per game of action on multiple occurrences.
• According to the AHL, St. Louis Blues goaltender Colten Ellis has been assigned to the ECHL’s Tulsa Oilers after being activated from season-opening injured reserve (SOIR) three days ago. Ellis last year was loaned to the Worcester Railers, where he posted a .905 save percentage and a 15-13-5 record. Drafted in the third round in 2019, Ellis sits fifth on the organizational goalie depth chart behind Jordan Binnington, Thomas Greiss, Joel Hofer, and Vadim Zherenko.