Rangers' Brennan Othmann back at rookie camp, looking for 'head start'

GREENBURGH – With just 25 NHL games on his resume, 22 of them last season, Brennan Othmann is still technically a rookie by NHL standards, and eligible for the Calder Trophy this season as the league’s Rookie of the Year.

Still, for the Rangers’ first-round draft pick in 2021 to be on the ice for the first day of rookie camp Wednesday at the MSG Training Center seemed a little awkward. It is his fifth rookie camp.

Othmann, though, doesn’t see rookie camp as something that is beneath him.

“I wanted to [attend], just because it helps with confidence,’’ he said. “It gets you ready for main camp. I mean, you get a week head start.

“I'm, yeah, an older guy, [but] for me, it doesn't matter,’’ Othmann, 22, said. “It's just hockey. I love playing hockey, love being at the rink. I mean, we have two games Friday [and Saturday, against the Flyers rookies in Allentown, Pa.] and for me, they're pretty meaningful. I mean, we’ve got a new coaching staff, and… playing those two games, it's important. And I wanted to just get out there and put my best foot forward.’’

Othmann will be very much in the thick of a battle for a roster spot in this training camp. With the trades of Kaapo Kakko last season and Chris Kreider in the summer, there figures to be an opening for at least one young winger to make the Opening Night roster. Othmann, 2023 first-rounder Gabe Perreault, and 2020 fifth-rounder Brett Berard are among the favorites to be vying for that spot.

“I'm going in to make the [roster],’’ Perreault said. “Obviously, I know that it's not going to be given to me, so I'm going to come in every day and work hard and try to prove it.’’

Othmann started each of the last two seasons at the Rangers’ AHL affiliate in Hartford. Last year, an early season injury kept him out of action for much of the first half of the season, but when he returned to the lineup, he played well enough to earn a call-up to the NHL in February.

He played well with the Rangers, but failed to score a goal, managing just two assists in his 22 games. And he admitted that weighed on him.

“Not scoring a goal is tough,’’ he said. “And I wasn't questioning my abilities, or my game, or anything like that… it just wasn't going in. And sometimes it happens and that takes a toll on your mind.’’

This summer, Othmann switched to a new trainer, Gary Roberts Performance, in Vaughan, Ontario, where he worked out with NHL players such as Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Gabriel Landeskog, Quinton Byfield and Sean Durzi. He felt the need to work out with NHL players because he admitted being “nervous and starstruck’’ when he got called up last season. He promised that he won’t be nervous coming into camp this year, and he said he gained a couple pounds to boot, weighing in Wednesday at 195 pounds.

Othmann said he is confident that, sooner or later, he will be an NHL player.

“I'm not worried about my abilities or when I'm going to play in the NHL,’’ he said. “Whether it's this year, whether it's whenever, I'm going to play in the NHL.

“And that's not being cocky. I'm just confident in my ability as a player.’’

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.