Lias Andersson sheds some light on his departure

Lias Andersson has finally shed some light on the circumstances surrounding his departure from the New York Rangers organization in an interview in Sweden.

As expected, Lias Andersson has broken his silence in an interview with a Swedish newspaper.  Suspended by the New York Rangers, he has returned to Sweden where he is watching hockey and not playing.

He also did a television interview while attending a Champions Hockey League game this week.  In both interviews he hinted at some of the issues that resulted in his requesting a trade and leaving the Hartford Wolf Pack.

Vincent Z. Mercogliano, Rangers beat writer for lohud.com has extensive excerpts after having the Gothenberg Post interview translated to English by Swedish hockey reporter Johan Rylander.  You can read the full story here.

The highlights of the interview are:

• Andersson acknowledged that people have portrayed him as a spoiled brat who quit on his team, but he cryptically said  “they don’t know the whole truth.”  He also said “There have been many incidents that have disturbed me.”
• Andersson addressed the attitude issue directly, “But I’m not a spoiled kid who complains about not being allowed to play hockey for the New York Rangers. That’s not the thing. There are other factors.”
• Rylander asked him directly if he had been bullied and he didn’t confirm or deny that any had taken place.   He did say that we will reveal more when the “time is right.”
• Andersson has been playing with an injury to both of his feet that makes it hard for him to wear skates.  He will be seeing a specialist in Sweden.
• The Swede also told Rylander that he believed he had won the second line center slot after Mika Zibanejad in training camp.  That assertion drew the most public reaction since that clearly was not the case. He won a job in training camp, but not the second line center position.

One thing to note about the interview is that Rylander has known Andersson for years and has followed his career.  He told the USA Network “I’ve known him since he was a kid, but never seen him so down and taken by the moment.   He was hesitating a long time when the bullying question was asked.”

Andersson said much the same in his interview with SVT, the national public television network and that was translated on Twitter by Swedish journalist Uffe Bodin.  In that interview he alluded to “incidents I can’t really talk about.”   He said “it was an untenable situation for me as a person.”

More confusion

It’s clear that Lias Andersson has some serious issues in his time in New York and Hartford.  His interviews didn’t shed any light on what happened and only made it more confusing.   Coach David Quinn was asked about the interview and didn’t want to discuss it.  We have yet to hear anything from Jeff Gorton or John Davidson.

While Quinn didn’t address Andersson’s comments directly, his description this week of Igor Shesterkin’s tenure in Hartford had some subtext:  “”He never whined. He never bitched and complained about being down there. He just went down there and did the best he could and was the best goalie in the American Hockey League.”

Take that Vitali Kravtsov!

The one thing that Andersson did more than hint about was that he left the team for health reasons, a lower body injury, but also for his own mental health.  He also mentioned that he had missed a team event in Hartford and that might have been a catalyst for the events that led to his departure.

The question is whether the Rangers will address this issue in any way or will they wait until Andersson feels the “time is right” to elaborate on the  issues he alluded to. There is no way of knowing what strategy the team will use.

What’s next

From both interviews, it appears that Andersson is willing to sit out the rest of his contract, but still wants to play hockey and would be happy to be playing in Sweden.  Frölunda’s sports manager Fredrik Sjöström made it clear that he thought Andersson was an excellent player and would welcome him to the team he played for in 2017-18.

The Rangers would have to agree to “lend” Andersson to Frolunda since he is under contract.  It would be in their best interests to let him play hockey since his trade value is virtually nil if he is sitting at home nursing a foot injury.

One thing is certain.  Lias Andersson has absolutely no future with the New York Rangers and every time he opens his mouth he doesn’t burn bridges, he implodes them.   What’s important is for the Rangers to eliminate any speculation that whatever happened to Andersson could be happening to some of the other crown jewels of the organization.  We’ll see.