Rangers top prospect Brennan Othmann stays hot with Hartford Wolf Pack
After a bit of a slow start to the season, Rangers top prospect Brennan Othmann has been scorching hot of late for the Hartford Wolf Pack.
The 20-year-old winger had eight shots on goal and scored twice in Saturday night’s 5-4 overtime win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, including the first game-winning goal of his AHL career.
"Scoring the first goal felt good," he told reporters postgame. "But scoring the overtime goal felt just as good. I needed to score that one, it definitely feels good to secure the two points."
During this hot streak, Othmann’s recorded 10 points over his past seven games, including five in three, and he’s put together three straight multi-point performances.
This doesn’t come as much of a surprise to the Rangers, as the youngster shined throughout training camp and preseason action, so much so that head coach Peter Laviolette kept him around until the final round of cuts.
After working through a brief rough path, though, Othmann’s quickly settled in on Hartford’s first line and their top power-play unit. He's now up to eight goals and nine assists (17 points) through 20 games.
"The staff and the players here have been great," he said. "The little cold streak there I was playing pretty good hockey, but not my best hockey. The coaches and older guys in the room were all sitting there just going through video with me and telling me to stick with it and to keep playing and shooting the puck.
"It's the little details that fans and people upstairs don't see, but the organization and people notice that, and that's what their looking for. I've been able to nail down those details more, I still need to sharpen up on a couple of more things, but I think I'm starting to learn the pro style and the little details more and more every day."
The former first-round pick’s development is progressing quickly. And with the recent injury to young winger Kappo Kakko, it appears Othmann may have a chance of making his NHL debut before one knows it.
