After a breakout year in the AHL, prospect Rémi Poirier is pressuring the Stars’ veteran hierarchy, potentially offering a cost-controlled solution to Dallas’ long-term backup goaltending puzzle.
Going into next season, one of the more intriguing storylines in the Dallas Stars organization won't necessarily be about who starts in net, it'll be about who's fighting for the job behind him.
Dallas has clearly settled on Jake Oettinger as its franchise goaltender for the foreseeable future, but the picture behind the 27-year-old is starting to get a little more interesting.
Casey DeSmith has been a steady, reliable presence as Oettinger's backup, but the 34-year-old veteran is entering a contract year, and a younger option could soon be pushing for that role.
That push may come from within the organization, where 2020 sixth-round pick Rémi Poirier has quietly developed into one of the more promising goaltending prospects in the Stars' system.
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The 24-year-old Farnham, Quebec native just wrapped up the best season of his professional career with the Texas Stars, posting a 27-19-8 record, a 2.61 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage across 52 games. Poirier was the clear workhorse for Texas all season, and he carried the club to a 37-29-4-2 finish, good for the ninth-best record in the Western Conference.
His postseason was a bit rockier. Poirier started all five games of Texas's first-round series against the Chicago Wolves, who went on to win the Western Conference, and finished with a 2-3 record, a 2.92 goals-against average and an .883 save percentage as the Stars were eliminated.
Even with the uneven playoff finish, Poirier's regular-season workload and improvement mark him as a name to watch. If he can build on this past season with another solid campaign, he could put himself in position to compete for Dallas's backup role, giving the organization a legitimate, cost-controlled internal option behind Oettinger as DeSmith's situation plays out.
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