Why this Rangers forward ‘could be on move’ during offseason: NHL insider
By pretty much all measures, 2025-26 was a hugely disappointing season for New York Rangers forward Brett Berard. So much so, that one NHL insider reports that the 23-year-old very well could be traded by the Rangers this summer.
In a post on X, former Rangers goalie and current ESPN and NHL Network analyst Kevin Weekes included Berard as one of three players in the League he’s heard recently “could be on move.”
Berard didn’t get much of a look in preseason under new Rangers coach Mike Sullivan, got off to a slow start with Hartford of the American Hockey League, and ended up playing just 13 games in the NHL this past season. He did receive consistent opportunity in a limited bottom-six role with the Rangers from Nov. 25 – Dec. 15, but never seemed to get his game going nor impress Sullivan.
The diminutive (5-foot-9) 2020 fifth-round draft pick didn’t record a point with the Rangers in 2025-26, managed just 10 shots on goal, and appeared to lose confidence the more he played and failed to produce. He didn’t play in another Rangers game after Jan. 29, part of a one-game call-up from the minors.
Things didn’t go much better at Hartford. Berard scored six goals and totaled 22 points in 41 games. He opened the AHL season with a 14-game goal drought and closed it out with a 16-game dry spell. His season ended in mid-March due to an upper-body injury.
Berard played most of the 2024-25 season the year before with a torn labrum, and had shoulder surgery last summer. Perhaps that affected him, especially during training camp and to start the season, though Berard claimed to be 100 percent healthy.
At his best, Berard adds much-needed speed to the Rangers lineup, offensive punch to the bottom-six forward group, and can be an absolute pest for the opposition to deal with. He scored six goals and totaled 10 points in 35 games as a Rangers rookie in 2024-25, even with the torn labrum. He scored two goals in the next-to-last game of that season against the Islanders, to end on a high note.
As a rookie pro in 2023-24, Berard led Hartford with 25 goals and had 48 points in 71 AHL games.
It looks like right now that young forwards Adam Sykora and Jaroslav Chmelar passed Berard on the depth chart with strong play down the stretch of the 2025-26 season. Plus a crowded bottom-six group also includes Twin Towers Matt Rempe and Adam Edstrom, each of whom is coming off an injury-marred season.
Trading Berard now means doing so when his value is at its lowest. He’s also a restricted free agent with arbitration rights, though not in a position to command much of a raise if any.
In a somewhat similar situation, the Rangers traded Brennan Othmann to the Calgary Flames in March for forward prospect Jacob Battaglia. Othmann was New York’s first-round pick in 2021, never got any traction under either Peter Laviolette or Sullivan, scoring one goal in 42 NHL games.
