The Rangers have been taking calls on forward prospect Brennan Othmann over the past several days, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. “There’s been conversations with other clubs about his future… it simply may be that he needs a fresh start elsewhere,” Friedman wrote.
When the Blueshirts selected Othmann with the 16th overall pick in the 2021 draft, they hoped he would be an impact contributor by now. Yet four years on, he hasn’t even established himself as a reliable NHL player. He was passed over for an opening-night job this year by a younger prospect in Noah Laba and a PTO invite in Conor Sheary. He wasn’t a particularly late cut, either, being assigned to AHL Hartford before the calendar flipped to October.
That comes after Othmann didn’t show much in his first extended taste of NHL action last season. The 6’0″ winger was limited to two assists in 22 games, although his usage didn’t lend itself to a ton of offense. He was on the ice for 9:58 per game, although he was extremely sheltered with nearly 71% of his zone starts at even strength coming in the offensive end. That lent itself to some strong possession metrics for Othmann, who managed a +7 rating with a 52.5 CF%. He didn’t look particularly out of place as a fourth-line checking piece, recording 43 hits, but both the team and player are hoping for more scoring out of the Ontario-born winger.
He’s shown that offensive upside in the minors. He had 21 goals and 49 points in 67 games for Hartford as a rookie in 2023-24. While injuries and his NHL call-up limited him to 27 AHL appearances last year, he still clicked at a strong 0.74 points per game rate with a 12-8–20 scoring line. He’s still 22, will turn 23 in January, and has some runway left in his development.
As the Rangers’ willingness to listen in trade talks indicates, though, his time is running out. The threat of waivers is a factor. This is his last season as a waiver-exempt player. If he doesn’t develop enough this season to work his way into an opening night job for 2026-27, the Blueshirts risk losing him for nothing on the wire 12 months from now.
Othmann registered one assist and a +1 rating in his season debut for Hartford last weekend. The Rangers are unlikely to recoup a first-round pick for him by shopping him now, particularly with his limited NHL track record, but a second-rounder might be in question – or a change-of-scenery swap for a prospect at a similar point in their development. Othmann is in the final season of his entry-level contract and will be an RFA next summer.
Blues should bring him in
you should, you can rip off NYR like you did with Buch :)
Wonder if they’d take alexandrov and or Joseph and a 5th rounder. Sunny comes back soon and torpchenko. Need to clear some spots.
NYR has to be one of the worst teams in the NHL with regards to prospect development
I was going to comment this. I do not know how the Rangers have managed to avoid stronger criticism for their repeated failure to develop young talented players.
Maybe, maybe not. The problem is the Rangers Top-6 and PP1&2 has been pretty much set for the last four or five years, which is why Lafreniere has had such little PP time in his career. The NYR get a + for developing Cuylle, Schneider and yes, even Rempe who was an afterthought. Othmann is a bit undersized and still a mediocre skater – and didn’t exactly light the AHL on fire, maybe he’s just not all that good? I mean yeah, only 63% of first round picks make it to 200 NHL games.
And talent evaluation! We don’t just develop poorly. We draft poorly too! And if we do happen to develop talent like Pionk or Buchnevich accidentally, we trade them away!
Also last year aside the Rangers have been contenders, and have shown very little interest in player development. The veterans suck up all the ice time and power play time.
They have been bringing in young players and for the most part, stuffing them into marginal roles that don’t produce numbers. Gallant and Laviolette were not developmental coaches, they were “win now” coaches who didn’t care about developing players.
Developing one or two good young players a year is about the max output when you are 100+ point team trying to make a deep playoff run.
Othmann has looked really good at the AHL level, and was a ghost at the NHL level in a pretty small sample size.
In his defense he got no ice time, no power play time, and was playing in a checking role.
They literally couldn’t have done anything different with this kid. They kept him in the juniors so he could develop. He spent time in the HL. He got sniffed at the NHL level. They developed him the way every single player in the NHL should be developed. He is just not good enough. This is not on the Rangers. Or, if it is? It’s on their scouting staff for drafting this guy.
They kept him in juniors because there was absolutely nowhere for him to play with the NHL team.
They sent him to the AHL because there was nowhere for him to play with the NHL team.
When he did come up to the NHL team he was glued to the bench and played with mostly 4th line players. They never gave him any real chance at success, or put him in a spot to produce.
As soon as he had one or two bad shifts he got nailed to the bench and sent back down…. that’s not how you develop players, and that’s what happened with him.
In their defense his performance was very blah, he did nothing to force himself into the lineup but he was certainly not given the same chances as other first round picks on rebuilding teams who are given actual ice time, with real live top six players as well as time on the power play.
Othmann’s ceiling has never been seen as super high, but his floor has been pretty much the same with every scout out who has watched him. A solid middle six winger who plays a two way game and scores 20 goals.
If you are certain he can’t reach that goal, start sending in job apps to NHL teams.
Call the Canucks they always seem to trade with the Rangers.
I wonder if the Sabres are interested in him for a swap of former first round pick Isak Rosen. Both players seem to have potential and talent, but have only shown to be AHL stars so far in their careers.
Othmann is not a perfect prospect and he obviously has his deficiencies but nobody can say that the Rangers organization has given him a truly fair opportunity. As long as they continue to stifle young players and find first line minutes for retreads (Conor Sheary the latest example of this mind-boggling process), the argument as to whether it is their reliance on vets instead of giving kids a serious opportunity, or whether they just have terrible talent evaluation during the draft process, that is the culprit for so many failed high picks. No matter the reason, it’s not a good look for the organization again.
It’s indeed an organizational ethos, they will always defer to the washed up veteran like Sheary and deny developmental time to young players.
They thought they were going to rebuild but then they blindly stumbled into Igor, Panarin, Fox, etc. and realized they were a contender so they never really put any real commitment into developing their young players like other rebuilding organizations would normally do.
So now you had Panarin, Zibanejad and whoever else staying out there for the entire power play until they collapsed, placing guys like Lafreniere, Chytil and Kakko into third line, checking roles, and catering to the veterans at every turn.
In their defense though, they had experienced, successful coaches that had legit records and they did indeed make some deep playoff runs.
It is what it is. You can’t have it both ways you can’t contend and rebuild at the same time.
I thought Sheary making the team was bad—he was fully in the AHL last year. Then they put him on the 3rd line when his ceiling right now is 4th line energy veteran (who they already have in Carrick). The fact that he’s playing top 6 right now… and the Rangers wonder why their offense is historically bad right now. I don’t know what we’re doing.
OILERS should be in the mix.