Despite heightened anticipation, the Rangers didn’t make a splash with their 16th-overall pick in the 2021 Entry Draft on Friday night. Instead, they used it to select forward Brennan Othmann.
“We had kind of narrowed it down to three or four players at that pick and you’re crossing your fingers as it goes on,” said Drury, who earlier in the day traded Pavel Buchnevich to the Blues. “We were excited [Othmann] was there. Our scouts kind of describe him as a Swiss army knife kind of player.”
Drury said he spoke with a lot of different teams and mulled a lot of different possibilities, but ultimately didn’t come close to packaging the Rangers’ first-round pick in a trade deal.
The Red Wings leapfrogged the Rangers to take goalie Sebastian Cossa at No. 15 by trading picks 23, 48 and 138 to the Stars. It is possible the Rangers were looking to draft Cossa and Detroit made the move to snag the 6-foot-6 netminder.
Othmann, a hard forechecking left winger, is coming off a solid performance for Team Canada at the U18 World Junior Championship. He posted three goals and three assists in seven games, including a second-period goal in the championship game against Russia to give his team a lead it never relinquished.
“I’m an offensive player who likes to put the puck in the net,” said Othmann, who added that he models his game after Flames star Matthew Tkachuk. “But at the same time, I play a physical game and I like to get under guys’ skin.”