- Calgary re-signed Brennan Othmann to a one-year, two-way contract worth $975,000 at the NHL level
- The 2021 first-round pick has two goals and three assists in 44 career NHL games
- Read below for what Othmann said about his exit from New York and which RFAs are still unsigned
Calgary has its last restricted free agent under contract.
The Flames announced Friday that they re-signed forward Brennan Othmann to a one-year, two-way deal. He makes $975,000 for any time he spends in the NHL this season.
Othmann landed in Calgary on March 6, when the Rangers moved him for prospect Jacob Battaglia. He got into two games with the Flames to close the season and put up a goal and an assist. The goal came March 30 in Denver.
Take a look at his first one in a Flames sweater:
The forward spoke to reporters about the trade once Calgary called him up last spring, and he was blunt about how his run in New York went.
“Getting that call on deadline day was super exciting. It’s not that I didn’t want to play for the Rangers. It’s that I just wanted a fresh opportunity, fresh eyes, and a fresh organization to look at me.”
He went a step further on why it never clicked on Broadway.
“I think with the Rangers and that organization, I just never got going, never got an opportunity I felt like. They have a lot of high-end talent players at both left- and right-wing, so it’s kind of hard to crack my way into that lineup over the last few years.”
The 16th pick in 2021 scored once in 42 games across three seasons with the Rangers. That goal came in January against Philadelphia, and Will Cuylle grabbed the puck out of the net for him before he finished celebrating.
Down in the AHL, the 23-year-old from Pickering, Ontario has been a different player. He piled up 41 goals and 85 points in 120 games with Hartford. He also won back-to-back World Junior gold medals with Canada in 2022 and 2023 and an OHL title with Peterborough.
A two-way structure means Calgary is promising him nothing. The Flames listed him on Team Black for training camp on Wednesday while he was still without a deal, and the Wranglers remain the fallback if he does not win a job.
Around the league, Othmann was one of four restricted free agents left unsigned with the season closing in. Simon Edvinsson, Adam Fantilli and Alexander Nikishin are the three still out.
Nikishin is the messiest of the three unsigned RFAs. Carolina said this week that the 24-year-old defenseman will not report to camp, and he asked for a trade after winning the Stanley Cup with the Hurricanes last season.
