With the New York Rangers off, preparing for their Sunday matinee match with the Anaheim Ducks, there was a lot of news out of Hartford, involving three highly regarded prospects.
The biggest news was regarding former first round draft pick Lias Andersson. It was first reported by Darren Dreger, then confirmed by the New York Post, that Lias Andersson has formally requested a trade and has left the Hartford Wolf Pack. Andersson was the New York Rangers first round draft pick in 2017, seventh overall and has had a rocky career with the organization.
Lias Andersson has formally asked the @NYRangers for a trade. He is no longer with the club. Rangers GM, Jeff Gorton will use the Holiday Freeze to assess the market.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) December 21, 2019
The saga of Andersson and his tenure with the Rangers has been debated ad nauseum. After a good showing in the preseason, Andersson made the club and started the season with the Rangers. He was immediately relegated to fourth line duty and averaged 9:33 in ice time while notching one assist in 17 games. He got over 11 minutes of ice time in only four games and the only reason he got that much was because he was on the second penalty killing unit.
He was sent to Hartford on November 18 in an effort to get more playing time and to jump start his game. In 13 game he scored four goals and added one assist while incurring 14 minutes in penalties and a plus/minus of minus nine.
Despite the larger role in the AHL, something obviously didn’t sit well with Andersson and he dropped the trade request today. He was not in the lineup for Saturday’s game with the Providence Bruins.
What exactly happened to cause the request is unknown for now. He played in the two games this week in Charlotte, both losses, going scoreless and minus four in the two matches.
Andersson is the second high profile draft pick who opted to leave the team Earlier this season first round pick Vitali Kravtsov chose to exercise his European Assignment Clause and return to the KHL. That was definitely attributed to issues he had with the Rangers and the team management in Hartford.
What now for Andersson?
Lias Andersson is in the second year of his three year Entry Level Contract. By demanding a trade he has put the Rangers in a tough position with any trading partners knowing that the Blueshirts have absolutely no leverage. Based on his performance, the expectation that Jeff Gorton will be able to get anything for Andersson is on the low side.
Not playing doesn’t help Andersson either. It’s a good time to take a break considering the Christmas holiday, but that will be over soon. Could the Blueshirts allow him to return to Sweden? If they wanted to try to pursuade him that they still think he has a future with the club, that could be an answer rather than just giving him away.
Andersson just turned 21 and has had two challenging seasons in the Rangers organization. Of the 217 players drafted in the 2017 Entry Draft, only eight have played more than Andersson’s 66 games. 15 players have more points than Anderson’s nine points.
Andersson was saddled with unreasonable expectations as the highest draft pick by New York since 2004 and the first top ten pick since the 2004-05 lockout. The reality is that he was never expected to be a bigtime scorer, drafted more for his character and leadership. He was also the graduate of one of the weakest draft classes in recent memory. While the top six players picked have blossomed into top notch NHLers, no one drafted after Andersson is even close to becoming a bonafide star.
The debate will rage about how the Rangers handled Andersson and we probably won’t get a resolution for many years. Right now, Andersson has to rank as a draft bust along the lines of Dylan McIlrath, Hugh Jessiman and Dan Blackburn.
It wasn’t all bad news for Hartford as they came through with a big win Saturday.