Chris Kreider may end up missing more than just Sunday’s game in Pittsburgh with his upper-body injury, as the Rangers recalled Brennan Othmann on Monday from their AHL Hartford affiliate in advance of Tuesday’s game against the Islanders.
Othmann, 22, appeared in three games with the Rangers last year.
He has 12 goals and eight assists with Hartford this season. Nine of those goals have come in his past 13 games.
The team’s first-round pick (16th overall) in the 2021 draft, Othmann has yet to score a point in the NHL, but with the Rangers still searching for direction prior to the March 7 trade deadline, they may want to see what he can do for them before considering moving him for a veteran player.
The 33-year-old Kreider played for Team USA in the 4 Nations Face-Off and scored a goal in the Rangers’ lopsided loss at Buffalo on Saturday, but was a late scratch after skating pregame before the Blueshirts won in Pittsburgh on Sunday.
Kreider has been hampered by injuries for much of the season and has scored 17 goals in 48 games, with just four assists.
Back spasms kept Kreider out for three games in November, and he was placed on injured reserve in January with an upper-body injury that sidelined him for four games.
Kreider was also a healthy scratch on Dec. 23 against the Devils.
Zac Jones, who agreed to go to Hartford on a conditioning stint last week with his role diminishing with the Rangers, was also recalled Monday and Matthew Robertson was assigned to Hartford.
Jones previously declared his displeasure to The Post’s Larry Brooks about his lack of playing time, with the defenseman saying in January he was “rotting away.”
The 24-year-old Jones most recently played with the Rangers on Feb. 7 before being sent to Hartford on the conditioning stint Thursday.
He’s appeared in just two games for the Rangers since Dec. 23, having been bumped down on the depth chart after the arrivals of Will Borgen and Urho Vaakanainen, who were acquired in separate trades in December.
