New York Rangers Third-Line Competition Has A Clear Front-Runner Heading Into The 2025-26 Season
Brett Berard will have a chance to grace Madison Square Garden with his presence once again in 2025-26. That all depends on the kind of training camp he has at the beginning of the year. He will have to convince Mike Sullivan he's a legitimate option for the New York Rangers third-line.
Brett Berard is a former 5th-round pick, as a 134th overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft.
He broke his own glass ceiling, as he played a significant amount of time in the NHL last season, with 35 games, scoring 10 points (6-4) as a third-line option for a struggling Rangers franchise.
Brett Berard's future in New York: Depends On His Training Camp Experience
He will have a chance to experience the same kind of trajectory, depending on how his training camp goes in 2025. Other late-round picks in the past have experienced a similar situation as underdogs who found a spot in the lineup:
Names like Carl Hagelin (sixth rounder in 2007) and Ryan Callahan (fourth rounder in 2004) come to mind, and Berard feels like he has the potential to be a blend of the two.
Berard has the energy and scoring capabilities that we've seen in both Hagelin and Callahan. But the NTDP and USHL product will have the chance to exceed expectations as the retool has left holes open in the lineup.
Even at his 5-foot-9 stature, he wasn't a lauded prospect, but found a way to be a regular contributor on the U.S. National U18, and USNTDP Juniors, scoring 34 points in 41 US NTDP games, and 18 points in 13 USHL Games.
His performance in Providence College wasn't different, as the smaller-sized forward in the final 72 games of his collegiate career would score 28-34-62.
If anything, we should've expected his arrival in the NHL sooner. Despite that he'd play through an injury last season and still managed to put up 6-4-10 in 35 games and playing 10:43 time on ice per night.
You wonder what a healthy Berard will look like on the ice next season, as the only weak spots we noticed in his game were evident by his underlying numbers per Evolving Hockey:
His underlying numbers weren't great, to be fair that's true of many 2024-25 Rangers, and they include a 42.22 GF%, a 46.4 CF%, and a 42.68 xGF% courtesy of Evolving-Hockey. If you are unfamiliar with these numbers, anything above 50% is good.
Mike Sullivan will have a chance to develop Berard into the kind of productive forward we've seen him be in Pittsburgh, with Bryan Rust.
He will first have to compete with other forwards acquired during the offseason to maintain a spot on the third-line he fought for last season.
| POLL | ||
SEPTEMBRE 8 | 39 ANSWERS New York Rangers Third-Line Competition Has A Clear Front-Runner Heading Into The 2025-26 Season Do you think forward Brett Berard of the New York Rangers will make the team out of training camp? | ||
| Yes | 32 | 82.1 % |
| No | 7 | 17.9 % |
| List of polls | ||