Derick Brassard

Lore & Background

Brassard was born and raised in Hull, Quebec, and began ice skating at age five. He played minor ice hockey for the Gatineau L'Intrépide before being selected 18th overall in 2003 by the Drummondville Voltigeurs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). In his rookie QMJHL season, he recorded 25 goals and 76 points, earning both the Michel Bergeron Trophy and RDS Cup. He doubled his offensive production the next season and received the Michael Bossy Trophy as the top prospect in the QMJHL. A shoulder subluxation during a preseason game cost him most of his final junior season.

Brassard spent most of his first professional season in the American Hockey League with the Syracuse Crunch. He made the Blue Jackets' opening night roster the following season and broke out offensively after missing large parts of two seasons with injuries. Clashes with coach Scott Arniel and the 2012–13 NHL lockout preceded his trade to the New York Rangers at the 2013 trading deadline. He reached the Stanley Cup playoffs all four seasons with the Rangers, including their loss to the Los Angeles Kings in the 2014 Stanley Cup Final.

Traded to the Ottawa Senators, Brassard struggled with coach Guy Boucher's frequent offensive line adjustments. He found further difficulties in Pittsburgh due to injuries and limited playing time on lower lines. By 2019, he had become an NHL journeyman: the Penguins traded him to the Florida Panthers, who flipped him to the Colorado Avalanche three weeks later. He spent a year apiece with the New York Islanders and Arizona Coyotes before joining the Philadelphia Flyers. A trade deadline move to the Edmonton Oilers made him one of nine NHL players to dress for 10 or more teams in his career. He returned to the Ottawa Senators on a professional tryout and was awarded a one-year contract.

Reader's Guide

Derick Brassard's career illustrates the trajectory of a highly touted junior prospect who achieved sustained NHL success but ultimately became a journeyman. His early promise in the QMJHL—where he won rookie of the year honors and was named the league's top prospect—led to a first-round draft selection by Columbus. After injury setbacks, he broke out offensively with the Blue Jackets and later became a reliable playoff contributor for the New York Rangers, reaching the 2014 Stanley Cup Final. However, subsequent trades and coaching changes, combined with injuries and reduced roles, saw him move frequently: he played for ten NHL teams, a feat achieved by only nine players in league history. His 1,000th NHL game on March 2, 2023, marked a milestone of longevity and adaptability. Brassard's career is notable for its contrast between early elite junior production and a later phase defined by frequent team changes, yet he remained a capable NHL centre for 16 seasons.

Did You Know?

• Brassard was selected sixth overall in the 2006 NHL entry draft by the Columbus Blue Jackets.
• He won both the Michel Bergeron Trophy and RDS Cup as QMJHL rookie of the year in 2004–05.
• He is one of nine NHL players to have dressed for 10 or more teams in his career.

Junior Dominance in Quebec

Born in Hull, Quebec, to a father who was once a star junior player drafted by Montreal but cut after training camp, Brassard grew up in the orbit of the Robert Guertin Centre, attending games as a child. He started skating at five and played minor hockey for Gatineau L'Intrépide before the Drummondville Voltigeurs took him 18th overall in 2003. His rookie QMJHL season in 2004-05 was electric: 25 goals and 76 points earned him both the Michel Bergeron Trophy and the RDS Cup. The following year he more than doubled his production to 44 goals and 116 points, collecting the Michael Bossy Trophy as the league's top prospect. That June, Columbus selected him sixth overall in the 2006 NHL draft. But a subluxated shoulder suffered in preseason against Gatineau's Bryan Main derailed his transition, requiring surgery and sidelining him until at least March.

The Columbus Years

Brassard's path to the NHL was anything but smooth. He spent most of 2007-08 with the Syracuse Crunch in the AHL, only briefly suiting up for Columbus in January and February. The following season he cracked the opening night roster, but injuries consumed large chunks of 2008-09 and 2009-10. His true offensive breakout arrived in 2010-11, yet the two seasons that followed were marred by friction with head coach Scott Arniel and the 2012-13 lockout that gutted the schedule. By the 2013 trade deadline, Columbus had had enough and sent Brassard to the New York Rangers. His three-year entry-level contract, signed in September 2006, had long since become a relic of a player who had been more injury and conflict than consistency in Ohio.

New York and the Cup Chase

With the Rangers, Brassard found a level of postseason relevance he had never experienced in Columbus. Across all four seasons he wore the blue and orange, the team reached the Stanley Cup playoffs, a remarkable streak for a franchise that had long endured playoff droughts. The pinnacle came in 2014, when New York advanced all the way to the Stanley Cup Final before falling to the Los Angeles Kings. Brassard was part of that roster, contributing to a team that had clawed its way through the bracket. His tenure in New York represented the most sustained and impactful stretch of his NHL career, a period where he was a regular contributor rather than an injury-prone depth player. It was the defining chapter of a career that would, after 2016, fracture into a series of brief stints across the league.

The Journeyman and the Milestone

After Ottawa, Pittsburgh, and a rapid two-team trade through Florida and Colorado in 2019, Brassard became the quintessential NHL journeyman. He collected a year each with the Islanders and Coyotes, joined the Flyers for 2021-22, and then moved to Edmonton at the trade deadline, making him one of only nine players in league history to dress for ten or more franchises. In a full-circle moment, he returned to Ottawa on a professional tryout for 2022-23, impressed the coaching staff in training camp, and signed a one-year deal. On March 2, 2023, in the midst of that campaign, Brassard took the ice for his 1,000th NHL game, a milestone that capped sixteen seasons across ten teams and a brief Swiss league stint with Genève-Servette, transforming a journeyman's path into a quiet, hard-won achievement.

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