At that point, he would be eligible to finish out Drummondville's season before joining the Syracuse Crunch, the American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate of the Blue Jackets.

[25] After spending training camp and the NHL preseason with Columbus, Brassard was assigned to the Syracuse Crunch, the Blue Jackets' AHL affiliate, to begin the 2007–08 season.

[33] Brassard played a total of 46 games for the Crunch, recording 15 goals and 36 assists for a team that fell to the Toronto Marlies in the second round of Calder Cup playoffs.

[34] Brassard was one of several rookies named to the Blue Jackets' opening night roster for the 2008–09 season, part of a new core of young players that also included Nikita Filatov and Jakub Voráček.

[41] He struggled at the start of the season with the return from his shoulder injury, telling ESPN that he was "just not playing like a great player" before snapping a 14-game scoring drought with a late goal in Columbus's 3–0 win over the Florida Panthers on December 10.

[45] Although young players like Brassard improved after Noel replaced Hitchcock, the Blue Jackets' 3–14–7 record from November 21 to January 5 kept them out of contention in the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs.

[46] When Scott Arniel took over coaching duties in Columbus for the 2010–11 season, he placed Brassard on the top offensive line with Voráček and captain Rick Nash.

[48] On February 16, 2011, Brassard injured his left hand after being struck by a Jan Hejda slapshot in the Blue Jackets' game against the Los Angeles Kings.

[53] The Blue Jackets made a number of roster changes going into the 2011–12 season: new centers Jeff Carter and Ryan Johansen moved Brassard to the wing, and then rookie Cam Atkinson usurped him on the top two offensive lines.

[54] He began the season in a slump, with only two goals and four points through his first 19 games, as well as a −10 rating, and Arniel frequently relegated Brassard to a healthy scratch by early December.

[55] On December 7, 2011, after Brassard's seventh healthy scratch of the season, his agent Allan Walsh wrote on Twitter accused Arniel of "singl[ing] out" Brasard "to be the fall guy in case things don't go well", describing the coach as having "a history of burying players and using them as scapegoats to mask his own lack of success on the ice".

[60] After skating in six games with Salzburg, during which he scored four goals and recorded an assist, Brassard abruptly left the team, telling reporters that he planned to return home and wait out the remainder of the lockout.

[61] At this point, Derek Dorsett, Tobias Enström, and David Clarkson had all left Red Bull on poor terms, with at least one player labelling the team "a joke".

[63] A representative from Red Bull released a statement saying that they would be filing a breach of contract notification with the International Ice Hockey Federation, while Brassard's agent told reporters that there was "no more unprofessional organization in all of Europe" than Salzburg.

[69] Brassard arrived at Madison Square Garden about 15 minutes before pregame warmups that night, and proceeded to contribute a goal and three assists in the Rangers' 6–1 rout of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

[76] The Rangers made a number of changes to their starting line-up for the 2013–14 season, with Brassard centering a second line that also featured Benoit Pouliot and Mats Zuccarello.

[78] Brassard began the season in a slump, and after being criticized by coach Alain Vigneault for his lack of production, he scored his first goal of the year on October 26, a game-winning breakaway past Jimmy Howard of the Detroit Red Wings with 12.6 seconds remaining in overtime.

[81] Brassard struggled with the frequent line adjustments Vigneault made through the first half of the season, but after finding stable chemistry with Benoit Pouliot and Mats Zuccarello, he improved, scoring nine points in 11 games by mid-January.

[85] He finished the Rangers' postseason run with six goals and 12 points in 23 playoff games before the Los Angeles Kings defeated New York in the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals.

[92] He added an additional nine goals and 16 points in the 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs, including a hat-trick to keep the Rangers from being eliminated in game six of the Eastern Conference Finals.

[93] Vigneault spent the first month of the 2015–16 season shuffling his forward lines, ultimately reuniting Brassard, who had five points through ten games, with Nash and Zuccarello.

[101] Brassard joined the second line on his new team, serving as a left-handed skater to counterbalance first- and third-line centers Kyle Turris and Jean-Gabriel Pageau.

The Vegas Golden Knights, meanwhile, received Ryan Reaves and a fourth-round 2018 draft pick from the Penguins, while trading prospect Tobias Lindberg to Pittsburgh and offering to retain 40 per cent of Brassard's remaining salary.

In addition to feeling outcast among Pittsburgh's strong core of skaters, Brassard had set personal goals of 50 to 60 points that season, which was made difficult by the limited playing time of a bottom-six forward.

[121] On February 1, 2019, the Penguins traded Brassard, Riley Sheahan, and three picks in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft to the Florida Panthers in exchange for Nick Bjugstad and Jared McCann.

[125] The day of the trade, the Panthers were already in Colorado to play the Avalanche at the Pepsi Center, and Brassard was pulled away during Florida's morning skate session to begin dressing for the other team.

[138] He had taken an interest in Arizona while watching the team during the 2020 playoffs, while Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong was looking for a veteran center to help a younger-skewing line-up.

[140] Head coach Rick Tocchet appointed Brassard as a temporary alternate captain at the start of the season, with the intention of re-evaluating his position after the first five games.

Brassard ultimately carried the title through the 2020–21 season while filling a number of roles on the ice: he played both left wing and center and made appearances on every line besides the top.

[142] The Coyotes failed to qualify for the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs, having been mathematically eliminated from postseason contention at the start of May,[143] but Brassard finished the season with eight goals and 20 points in 53 games.