The Rangers have a sign of tangible change after their disappointing campaign that ended in the basement of the Eastern Conference.
Jed Ortmeyer, their director of player development who also spent the first part of his career as a player with the Blueshirts, left to pursue other opportunities, noti.group’s Mollie Walker confirmed Friday — creating a vacancy in an area where the Rangers have struggled mightily in recent years.
Ortmeyer was initially hired for the position back in 2017, remaining on staff after the Rangers fired Jeff Gorton and hired Chris Drury back in 2021.
But the Rangers’ inability to develop prospects emerged as a concerning trend, even during the recent seasons when they made trips to the conference finals.
They possessed three top-10 draft picks between 2018-20, and all of them — Vitali Kravtsov at No. 9 in 2018, Kaapo Kakko at No. 2 in 2019, Alexis Lafrenière at No. 1 overall in 2020 — underwhelmed, though Lafrenière perhaps turned a corner with his breakthrough across the final two months of the 2025-26 campaign.
Brennan Othmann, the No. 16 overall pick in 2021, stalled despite numerous opportunities with the Blueshirts, leading to a March trade for a fresh start.
The Rangers also don’t have many defensive prospects awaiting a regular NHL chance behind Drew Fortescue — the third-round pick in 2023 who burned the first year of his entry-level deal at the end of this season. AHL Hartford missed the Calder Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2022, too.
Gabe Perreault scored 12 goals, collected 27 points, carved out a role on the first line and seemed as if he could be the prospect to snap the Rangers out of their development funk, but his ability to sustain that success moving forward will be a critical storyline to start the 2026-27 campaign.
Noah Laba, a fourth-round pick in 2022, also emerged as a consistent bottom-six center for the Blueshirts during his rookie season, too.
But those promising strides have only started to alter their development trajectory.
When Drury released The Letter 2.0 in January, the Rangers signaled a desire to focus more on development.
To acquire the prospects and young players and draft capital and let them shape their next era.
They also brought back Kevin Maxwell, previously with them for 14 years, last month as their director of pro scouting and director of player personnel, serving as the final domino for organizational change.
And after the exit of Ortmeyer, who signed as an undrafted free agent with the Rangers in 2003 and logged 177 career games with them as a player before returning in the personnel role, the Blueshirts will have a new voice overseeing development now, too.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
