Ortmeyer twice won the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award given to the player who goes "above and beyond the call of duty." Chris Drury, the Rangers' Assistant General Manager and GM of the Hartford Wolf Pack, said that is evidence of how much respect he had among the fans for how he played the game, and that will benefit the players he'll work with in this role.
"I didn't know Jed personally when I was a player but I heard from so many different people of what a great person he was and the character he brought to every team he was on," Drury said. "I think Jed is going to be a great example for our kids."
Eminger spent his first year after his career as a part-time scout with the Rangers, with the hope that it would lead to a position like this.
"The Rangers gave me an opportunity [this past season] to kind of get a feel for things," Eminger said. "It was a great opportunity for me and my goal was to eventually at the end of it become a scout and it happened. I was real grateful they gave me the chance."
Eminger, who played three of his 14 seasons in professional hockey with the Rangers, said he'd often watch games with a scout's mindset. Whether out of the lineup because of injury or as a healthy scratch, the 33-year-old said he'd never focus on systems, but rather on individual players.
"That always intrigued me. I think that's why I really wanted to be a scout," he said. "As a player I'd watch players and now as a scout, I'm doing the same thing."