There are few players in the NHL who follow the league as a whole as closely as Derick Brassard. He was always the first one who wanted to chat about the trade deadline — who was going where, what the rumors were, which team got ripped off.
Turns out eventually the meat grinder of the business sucked him in, as well. Now on the other side of it, having signed a one-year, $1.2 million deal with the Islanders this summer, the 32-year-old Brassard can reflect on what has been a hellacious 10 months, if not a totally whirlwind three-plus years since the Rangers traded him in the summer of 2016.