The New York Rangers main objective in 2018-19 will be to develop their young players properly. What does that mean for Lias Andersson?
We all know how important Lias Andersson is to the New York Rangers rebuild. We all know how important he is to Jeff Gorton’s career. They know that, in this new era of player-development-first thinking, they need to be careful with how they use their former seventh overall pick.
The Rangers original plan, as far as the fan base knows, was to trade some of their NHL veterans in the offseason to clear up some roster space for their younger players. Unfortunately, the trade market went stale and the team wasn’t able to move any of their veterans like Ryan Spooner, Vladislav Namestnikov or Kevin Hayes. Because of this, their forward group is pretty much locked in.
At the very least, they could move both Namestnikov and Spooner off of center and to the wing. That would leave both bottom-six center slots open.
Filip Chytil could theoretically be placed on the left wing of the second line next to Hayes, but the team will likely want him to develop as a center. Because of this, he’ll likely spend some time as the third line center, playing about 15 minutes a night.
That leaves nothing but the fourth line center role for Andersson at this time.
Now the question is, what’s better for his development; fourth line minutes in the NHL or first line minutes in the AHL?
Of course, if David Quinn wants to roll with four lines every night, maybe that line could get 10-12 minutes a night. That wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for Andersson.
But if it’s like an Alain Vigneault fourth line where anything over eight minutes a night is gravy, I’m not so sure.
The Athletic’s Rick Carpiniello told the boys from Blueshirts Breakway back in July that he feels that eight minutes a night on the NHL fourth line is better for Andersson than 20 first line AHL minutes. Those comments have received a lot of backlash from the fan base and, in my opinion, rightfully so.
I personally would rather see the team play Boo Nieves, Steven Fogarty or Gabrielle Fontaine at the fourth line center position while letting Andersson take the reigns in Hartford. He should be afforded the opportunity to play in all situations down there, which would be huge for his development.
Andersson looked alright at the end of last season in his seven game stint in New York. The kid is just 19 years old. There is no need to rush him at this point. If the Rangers are able to offload a veteran or two at the deadline or prior and want to call up Andersson to replace them, sure, go for it.
But there is no reason to be playing the seventh overall pick for eight minutes a night on the fourth line of a lousy, losing team. There just isn’t.