Well, it's Groundhog Day. Again. More specifically, Brennan Othmann has been once again recalled from the Hartford Wolf Pack to join a New York Rangers squad that is struggling to score goals. The Blueshirts are returning home to Madison Square Garden to face off against the Seattle Kraken, and Othmann could get a chance to try and spark the Blueshirts.
What Othmann's recall means for the Rangers
The team assigned Anton Blidh back to Hartford on Sunday, and Othmann was held out of the Wolf Pack's AHL game. It was assumed Othmann would rejoin the team, and he could be in line to join the Rangers' third line that already includes Gabe Perreault and Noah Laba. This would be a new version of a "kid line" something the organization relied on previously by uniting Kaapo Kakko, Filip Chytil, and Alexis Lafrenière. There's no guarantee Othmann will play, but it would be weird to summon a player who had four points in his last four games to be an extra.
Who could become the odd man out?
The obvious choice to sit in a skybox would be Matt Rempe, as he's a player who generally logs the fewest minutes for the Rangers. He's averaging 8:42 on the season, and he's not been much of a factor since returning to the lineup. Offense was never a strong part of his game, and a one-for-one swap of him and Othmann seems logical. There's also a chance Jonny Brodzinski draws out, as the Rangers' plucky bottom six forward logged just 8:34 in the recent drubbing against the Bruins after logging double digit minutes in four consecutive games. The drop in minutes could be a result of the blowout, but that's the type of game where you'd want to rely on players like him when the game is firmly out of reach.
Projected lines with Othmann back
If the Rangers make the obvious swap, the result could be something that includes Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, and Will Cuylle skating on the top line. That would leave J.T. Miller, Vincent Trocheck, and Lafrenière on the second line. That would create room for the kids lines of Perreault, Laba, and Othmann, and lastly would be a fourth line of Brodzinski, Sam Carrick, and Taylor Raddysh.
The Rangers should skate before Monday's game at Madison Square Garden, and then fans will learn how much of a shakeup Mike Sullivan wants to enact before one of the team's final home games before heading to the West Coast.