Rangers Should See What They Can Get in Trades for Othmann & Schneider

Across the NHL, in order to acquire, you need to give something up. Sometimes that means parting with less-than-ideal pieces to improve a team.

The New York Rangers find themselves in a difficult position. They need to get better without making themselves worse and steer things back in the right direction. It’s finishing up a retool, not a rebuild. While Braden Schneider and top prospect Brennan Othmann could turn out to be players who play top-line minutes, both could be attractive trade pieces for other teams to acquire, while helping the Rangers improve simultaneously.

Rangers’ Depth on Wing Makes Othmann Expendable

Starting with Othmann, there is no obvious answer to his NHL trajectory. The upside is there to become a staple top-six winger in the NHL, and he has gotten better each season playing pro hockey. For example, in 2024-25, Othmann averaged 0.74 points per game in the American Hockey League (AHL), up slightly from his 0.73 in the previous season. That’s solid production for someone in their 20-22-year-old seasons in the AHL.

But when called up to the NHL, the 2021 first-round pick has just two points. The good news is he’s only played 25 games in the big leagues, leaving an unknown that could entice teams.

Why might the Rangers decide to move Othmann in the offseason? For one, the right player comes around who catches the attention of president and general manager Chris Drury (particularly a defenseman who can slide next to Adam Fox on the top pair).

Also, wingers aren’t a positional need for the organization at the moment, with Gabriel Perreault, the organization’s top prospect, on the brink of perhaps becoming a full-time NHLer. Plus, fellow rookie Brett Berard stood out last season and is a safer bet to crack a top-nine role next season. Not every prospect is going to turn into a high-end NHLer. The risk the Rangers possess by holding on to Othmann is that the longer the front office waits, the more his trade value diminishes. For example, this was seen recently with 2018 ninth-overall pick Vitali Kravtsov, who Drury later traded for a seventh-round draft pick and career AHLer William Lockwood. The Rangers would be better off packaging Othmann in a deal for a player in his 30s who can help the team beyond 2025-26, rather than repeating that mistake.

Schneider Could Help Rangers Land a Star

The story is a little different for Schneider, who has established himself as a full-time NHLer. The only problem with that is that the native of Prince Albert, Canada, has just about hit his ceiling. While he’s made most of his living so far as a third-pair defenseman, the best-case scenario is that he turns into a second-pair shutdown defenseman with limited offensive upside.