The New York Rangers are reeling after a historically bad start to the season on home ice — and general manager Chris Drury could already be considering making some changes.
As Sportsnet hockey insider Elliotte Friedman reported on Thursday, the Blueshirts could be looking to move top prospect Brennan Othmann.
“It's early and most teams try to wait until making moves, but there is at least one name gaining traction out there. That’s New York Rangers prospect Brennan Othmann,” Friedman wrote. “Othmann was sent down to AHL Hartford after failing to make the NHL team, and, since that occurred, there’s been conversations with other clubs about his future.
“The Rangers have a lot on the wings and it simply may be that he needs a fresh start elsewhere. We will see where things go, but there’s definitely discussion about the next steps of his career. Stay tuned.”
Selected 16th overall by the Rangers in the 2021 NHL Draft, Othmann dominated both the Ontario Hockey League and American Hockey League before his debut in the National.
He amassed 97 points in 66 games with the Flint Firebirds in 2021-22, and added another 67 in 56 contests split between the Firebirds and Peterborough Petes the next year. Othmann was also excellent with the AHL's Hartford Wolf Pack, registering 49 points in 67 games in his first taste of professional hockey in 2023-24.
But the 22-year-old has been unable to translate that into success at the highest level. He managed just two assists in 22 games with New York last season, and failed to make the team altogether in 2025-26.
This still projects as a future full time NHL player, and if he won't get that opportunity with the Rangers, it makes sense that Drury and the front office might look to move on from the top prospect.
Rangers having all kinds of problems early on
Although a 2-3 record to start the season isn't terrible at first glance, it's the mechanics surrounding it that are so miserable for the franchise. The Rangers have, almost unfathomably, failed to score a single goal over their first three home games of the season.
It's now been 180 full minutes of hockey at Madison Square Garden without a single tally from the home side. The only team with a longer drought at home to start a season is the now-defunct Pittsburgh Pirates, whose futility dates all the way back to 1928.
It's a nightmare for the fanbase, but New York has been great on the road, beating the Sabres 4-0 in Buffalo and the Penguins 6-1 in Pittsburgh.
If the team can translate those kind of results onto home ice, they'll be just fine. But there is quite reasonably a significant level of concern with the abysmal start in the Big Apple.
The Blueshirts will play two more road games — in Toronto on Thursday and Montreal on Saturday — before returning to MSG next Monday night to welcome the Minnesota Wild.
It'll be interesting to see if Othmann gets a call up sometime in the near future, or if he'll instead be calling a new city home at some point this year.
