Berard saga ends, signs with Islanders

New York Islander Fan Central | 10/09/2007 03:53:00 PM | | |

Islanders website: Finally announced the Berard saga is over agreeing to a one year contract.

"I came to camp determined to prove to the Islanders I belonged in the NHL and I’m very appreciative of Garth Snow and Ted Nolan for giving me the chance," said Berard. "The guys have already shown this season what kind of character this team has and how strong a team we are. My goal is to do everything I can to make us better.”


Newsday: Greg Logan reports Berard's contract is for 725k.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Sure glad this saga is over because I was tired of blogging about it.

A lot of credit to Berard and agent Tom Laidlaw here. I don't know if he had offers the last few weeks from other teams and we have no idea what the Islanders promised behind the scenes in terms of how he would be played, but he kept quiet past the start of the season and let the situtation play itself out and was at practice without a contract several times.

As I wrote before seems Snow was stubborn and wanted to get something for Meyer or wanted to do something he could not make happen. I kind of like that he was stubborn and did not want to give up a player but having Berard quarterback the powerplay in practice and then not have him on the ice for three games made no sense and may have cost them against Washington.

Now we see who sits for Berard to play which also will be interesting.