Brett Berard eager to make strong impression on new Rangers coach with lineup spot up for grabs

Brett Berard was competing in just his fourth career NHL game when he suffered a torn labrum in his shoulder.

It was a “normal hit” in the Rangers’ eventual 4-3 win over the Canadiens at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 30, Berard explained before suiting up for the Shoulder Check Showcase last week. He missed just three games, returned to the lineup and appeared in 31 more contests in what ultimately became a lost 2024-25 season that ended in early April.

“I was out for a week or so, but it’s one of those things where you’re up in the NHL, you work your whole life for it,” Berard said of the injury, which didn’t require surgery despite forcing him to pull out of the 2025 World Championship this summer. “I felt like I was playing pretty good hockey, too, so you don’t want to really lose that. So, [I] just tried to play through it.”

The circumstances surrounding Berard’s first NHL recall are worth mentioning for context.

Here was a 22-year-old, long-shot draft pick by the club — at 134th overall in 2020 — who had worked his way up the organizational depth chart. The Rangers were beginning to implode in the aftermath of president and general manager Chris Drury’s leaked league-wide memo soliciting trade partners for his captain and longest-tenured player. The losing streak had just hit a season-high five straight games following a dud in Philadelphia.

Berard’s recall was made with hope that the 5-foot-9, 175-pound wing, who was Hartford’s leading scorer at the time, could help give the team some new life.