Why Casey DeSmith has had success after slow start with Stars

It’s been widely covered why the Dallas Stars had to make a change at backup goalie this summer.

Scott Wedgewood was a well liked and trusted backup to Jake Oettinger, but with his play he’d earned a raise, and for the Stars salary cap budget and general manager Jim Nill, backup goalie is a job that pays $1 million per season.

So Wedgewood took more money with the Nashville Predators (he has since been traded to the Colorado Avalanche) and the Stars made a three-year pact with Casey DeSmith worth the prescribed $1 million per season.

That deal became even more vital when Jake Oettinger signed his contract extension worth $8.25 million per season, which starts with the 2025-26 campaign.

For both the Stars and DeSmith the deal represented some vital stability. The Stars were able to plan their cap ledger for three years, while DeSmith got some security as a 33-year-old, when teams tend to lean to shorter deals with veteran net minders.

But on the ice it took some time for DeSmith to actually provide some of that stability, which was also reflective in how the Stars have potentially over-taxed Oettinger during certain stretches.

In his first seven games DeSmith posted a 2-4-0 record with an .891 save percentage, those numbers were actually slightly because of DeSmith’s 25-save shutout on Oct. 13 against the Seattle Kraken in his first start of the season.

In October and November, DeSmith often looked frazzled. Now because of his height — he’s one of just seven goalies to appear in an NHL game this year that’s 6-foot or shorter — DeSmith is always going to have to be more active in his movement than Oettinger, but that additional movement doesn’t excuse some of the consistent struggles DeSmith had, including allowing 10 combined goals in consecutive starts against the struggling Anaheim Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks.

But things started to change for DeSmith in December, particularly on Dec. 2 against the Utah Hockey Club where he made 36 saves on 37 shots. It was scrambly at times, but it was a battling and confidence-building performance for the goalie.

That start kicked off a streak where DeSmith in his past five appearances has a 4-0 record and stopped 114 of 120 shots, a .950 save percentage. This includes Thursday, where DeSmith made 27 saves in a dominant 4-1 win against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Let’s take a look at why DeSmith is having his recent success, starting with this shot chart, courtesy of InStat.

This chart is save percentage by zone on the ice, and DeSmith has been notably good on shots from the most dangerous areas — right in front of the net and the slot.

By comparison, here is how Oettinger has faired behind the same defense, with a much larger sample size of course.

For DeSmith, the reason he has so much success on shots from those high-danger areas — and on the flip side some more difficulties on others — is how aggressively he attacks the shooter.

This was a pretty extreme example of that on Thursday, with DeSmith effectively wiping out Owen Tippet while making a save on a rush chance.

It’s unorthodox and reflective of DeSmith’s less robotic tendencies. It reminded me of the start against Utah on Dec. 2, where he made this save.

Casey DeSmith with a rarity in today's game, the original VH. pic.twitter.com/Q4onaxmuQW

— Sean Shapiro (@seanshapiro) December 3, 2024

To translate some of that post from goalie jargon to human, it’s a reference to typical NHL goalie over-reliance on the Reverse Vertical Horizontal (RVH). Also known as the integrated post lean, the RVH is a valuable tool for today’s goalie, but it’s become overly used and a has become a crutch, particularly for taller goalies.

(I wrote extensively about that over in this piece, if you want to dive deeper.)

It’s a bit silly for me to freak out about a mundane save selection, a VH as opposed to an RVH, but it does come back to the greater point that DeSmith, in a generation of cookie-cutter goalies, does think outside the box.

And for now, on his current trend, it’s working really well. And for the Stars, as Sam Nestler wrote earlier this season, that’s vital to both push Oettinger and keep him healthy for the postseason.