The sustained cheers for Derick Brassard from the Garden crowd were warm and earned during a video tribute to the former Ranger at the first television timeout of Sunday’s match against his Senators.
“That was a nice ovation,” Brassard said after Ottawa’s 2-0 victory. “I’m really thankful for the fans here and for appreciating my work here the last four years.”
Brassard led the Rangers in goals last season with 27. He led the Blueshirts in playoff scoring by a considerable margin (44 points, 10 more than runner-up Derek Stepan) over his four tournaments wearing the Blueshirt. And he was third on the club in aggregate scoring over his three full seasons on Broadway, his 163 points two fewer than Stepan and four behind Mats Zuccarello.
Yet Brassard — who recorded a total of 174 points (69-105) in 254 games on Broadway — was the lone core Ranger dealt over the summer as general manager Jeff Gorton sought to remake the club. The center was sent to Ottawa in exchange for Mika Zibanejad and a second-rounder just after the Blueshirts had paid No. 16 the $2 million bonus due him on July 15.
It was a swap in which the Rangers became younger, faster, bigger and cheaper, coach Alain Vigneault choosing the accentuate the latter consideration is discussing the deal following the morning skate.
It was also the only reasonable deal involving a top-tier player presented to Gorton over the offseason.
“Brass played extremely well for us. He was committed to the group and his teammates, but hockey is a business and by making that move, we were able to sign three players,” Vigneault said. “In a cap era, you’re forced to make decisions that are really hard, especially when it comes to somebody who performed and was very well liked.
“We felt we got a younger player on the upswing [in Zibanejad], but it was something for the whole organization that was hard to do [even though] it was something we had to do.”
Zibanejad, who missed his fourth game since suffering a broken fibula last Sunday, is 23, 6-foot-2 and earning $2.625 million entering restricted free agency this summer. Brassard is 29, 6-foot-1, and in the third season of a five-year contract worth $5 million per. As such, the trade saved the Rangers $2.375 million in cap space for the season.
And though it is true the signings of Jimmy Vesey ($925,000), Brandon Pirri ($1.1 million) fit into that difference, it is also true the Rangers opened the season with nearly $3 million of space. So, while money may have been a consideration, it was not the vital one.
Brassard, whose signature moment as a Ranger came in Game 6 of the 2015 conference final in Tampa Bay when he recorded a hat trick plus two assists, has nine points (3-6) in 22 games playing under Guy Boucher’s restrictive system in Ottawa. He did not get a shot on goal in 14:27 of this one.
“The Rangers, they were really good to me and I owe a lot to the coaching staff, organization and all the teammates that I had here,” Brassard, who came to New York at the 2013 deadline from Columbus in the Marian Gaborik deal, said prior to the match. “They made me a better player and I’m always going to be grateful for everything they’ve done.”