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.
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