Meet Jaxson Stauber, Utah Hockey Club’s first goalie to record a shutout

Six-nothing.
It’s the biggest deficit the Vegas Golden Knights have ever suffered in a home loss, and it came at the hands of a goalie playing his seventh game ever.
The future seems bright for Jaxson Stauber, the goalie in question. He has only lost one NHL game and his numbers are above-average. He plays the game with a calmness that typically comes with hundreds of games’ worth of experience, even though he’s only 25 years old.
“I thought I had some good habits,” Stauber said of his game against the Golden Knights. “When you haven’t played in a while in a game situation, you get there and it gets fast. Some of the habits get a little sloppy. … I thought I did a good job of maintaining those good habits, which helped me to be successful.”
It was the first shutout in Utah HC history.
Stauber hadn’t played since Nov. 15. Funny enough, his last game was against the Henderson Silver Knights, the Golden Knights’ AHL affiliate. It was a 2-1 win for Stauber and the Tucson Roadrunners.
Stauber’s NHL opportunity came after the team announced that Connor Ingram is “day-to-day” with an upper-body injury. That announcement came on Nov. 20 and Utah HC head coach André Tourigny said on Monday that he’s still “not close” to returning.
Karel Vejmelka played against the Dallas Stars on Monday, but Tourigny hinted that Stauber will likely play one of the games on the weekend road trip. They face the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday and the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday. Neither team is nearly as good as the Golden Knights, so no matter which matchup Stauber gets, it should seem easy to him.
Just kidding. There’s no such thing as an easy NHL game, and Stauber knows that.
“It’s all four lines and all six D that can score and make plays,” he said when asked about the differences between the AHL and the NHL from a goalie’s perspective. “It takes a lot of focus and attention.”
As far as his long-term goals go, he wants to become a full-time NHL goalie. But he’s making sure he doesn’t let the future get in the way of the present.
“I just want to make the most out of my opportunity,” Stauber said. “If I come to the rink and do my best every day, continue to get better, all the things will work themselves out.”
Stauber isn’t the only member of his family born to stop pucks. His father, Robb Stauber, played 13 seasons of professional hockey, including 62 NHL games. He played for the Los Angeles Kings with the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Luc Robitaille, Jari Kurri and a number of other members of the Hockey Hall of Fame. He did the same with the Buffalo Sabres, joining Dominik Hasek, Dale Hawerchuk and future Hall of Famer Alex Mogilny.
Robb Stauber was known for his aggressive style of goaltending. He often went well out of his net — sometimes even into the faceoff circles — to make poke checks. That earned him the nickname “Blueline.”
Both of the Staubers have scored goals as goalies, but what’s more impressive is that Jaxson recorded a shutout on the same night.