Sergei Belski-Imagn ImagesIt’s never easy to hear your name in trade rumors, and as a player, that is exactly what New York Rangers forward Brennan Othmann has had to endure.
Othmann’s name has floated around in trade rumors over the course of the 2025-26 season,
Specifically, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on Oct. 16 that the Rangers are open to the idea of trading Othmann.
On Tuesday, Othmann was very honest about the fact that it’s been difficult to hear these rumors surrounding his trade availability, and it hasn’t been so easy to just flush out the distraction.
"It's tough, to be honest,” Othmann said of the trade rumors involving his name. “There's some things that you see, regardless if you deleted stuff or deleted accounts. It's tough. You still get stuff. It sucks that my family's still out there on the internet, and they still see some things, and they have feelings as well. So in that aspect, it sucks for them.
“At the end of the day, I’m more worried about what these people in this organization think of how you play and you're more worried about how you play yourself. I've tried over the last three years to block out a lot of that noise, and I think this year I've done a really good job of it. I'm just going to keep doing that, and not really worry about that, and just worry about the guys in this locker room, worry about what the coaching staff and management group.”
The Rangers recalled Othmann from the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League on Sunday after he played what Mike Sullivan described as his best stretch of games.
In the Rangers’ 4-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Monday night, Othmann generated a couple of high-quality scoring chances, including one shot that hit the crossbar.
He slotted onto a line with Alexis Lafrenière and Noah Laba, while also serving a role on the second power-play unit, recording 12:08 minutes.
“I thought Otter had a good game for us,” Sullivan said. “I thought he helped us with the puck pursuit game, getting in on the forecheck a few times. I thought he had a couple of good chances early in the game. When he brings that, when he helps us with the puck pursuit, can get in on the forecheck, bring that type of energy and physicality, is an element that he can help us also. That’s when he’s at his best, and that’s the type of game that we are trying to define for him to try and help us.”
The 23-year-old hasn’t been able to carve out a sustainable role with the Rangers, despite being called up numerous times this season
While admitting that the constant moving around between the NHL and AHL is tough on him from a mental standpoint, Othmann hopes that this call-up will ultimately be a turning point in his career.
“Ups and downs. A lot of climbing up mountains, going down, and it's tough,” Othmann said of his hockey journey with the Rangers thus far. “It's tough mentally. It's tough, not just for myself, it's tough for family as well. You don't know when you're coming up, when you're going down, how long you're staying for, so it sucks in that aspect. All of us in our family are taking it day-by-day. We're trying to enjoy the moments when we can, and trying to get kind of out of the valleys, I guess when we're down there, but hopefully right now, it's going in the right direction.”