BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – The Lias Andersson saga has taken a new turn.
The New York Rangers have loaned Anderson, who’s currently under team-imposed suspension, to his old Swedish team HV71 for the remainder of the year.
This move is similar to what the organization did with another somewhat disgruntled player, Vitali Kravtsov when he was returned to Russia after five lackluster games. He left on October 28th and returned back to North America on December 13th.
Clearly, the situations are very different with the only common denominator being that they are both high first-round draft picks.
Cantlon Corner learned on Friday from two NHL sources that Andersson is more likely to be dealt come draft time when next years cap number is known.
In an HV71 team issued a press release on Sunday confirming Andersson”s return.
“Lias Andersson comes most recently from the New York Rangers organization but will be loaned to HV71 for the rest of the season.
We are, of course, very pleased that Lias will play in HV71 again. He is an incredibly good hockey player, a wonderful guy and he knows the club well after his years in Jönköping.
We have had a good dialogue with the New York Rangers throughout the process and thank them for making this solution possible,” said Johan Hult, sports manager at HV71.
Lias Andersson joins HV71 on Monday and will get some workouts in his legs before it’s time for games. But the gold hero from 2017 is happy to be back in Jönköping.
Andersson added his own sentiments.
“I am grateful that it was possible to solve in such a good way and look forward to wearing my HV shirt again. I have many good memories from my time in HV71 and will do everything I can to make the club successful,” said Lias Andersson.
Previously, Lias Andersson has played three seasons in HV71 and crowned his last win with an SM gold medal in 2017.
Andersson, requested a trade back on December 19th when the team returned home from a road trip to Charlotte, North Carolina.
Andersson was demoted to the AHL on November 17th after playing just 13 games. He missed one game due to injury. He amassed just four goals and five points. Three of those points came in one game against the Binghamton Devils on December 7th, meaning he registered just two points over the other 12 games. He was scoreless in his last six games with the Hartford Wolf Pack.
Andersson played just 74 games in Hartford registering 15 goals, 24 assists (39 points) over three seasons. While in New York with the Rangers, he played just 66 games with a disappointing three goals and nine points.
Andersson’s last game with the Rangers was against the Florida Panthers where he played just 3:43 in the game. His career-best time on ice is 16:09.
In the past two years, he has amassed just four multi-point games while in Hartford. Prior to the Binghamton game, his last was against the Providence Bruins last season when he was recalled and managed just six points in 42 games with the Rangers.
A natural center, Andersson played wing at times, but since his reassignment to Hartford, he has been playing strictly center.
Andersson’s last game in Charlotte was bad. He had a minus-3 with just one shot on goal. It wasn’t just Andersson, was not the only Pack player who struggled in that game. The entire team did. He flew back with the team that Thursday and sometime between then and Friday morning the decision was made.
Andersson’s agent called the Rangers and informed them of the trade request
While in Sweden Andersson gave an interview with the Swedish sports news service SVTP Sports (their version of ESPN/TSN)
Credit to Uffe Bodin, Editor-In-Chief of newsme.com for the twitter post with this translation.
This troubling tweet raises some serious questions and cast some serious aspersions and insinuations that could have profound impacts going forward for Andersson whether he returns to the Rangers or for any organization that might be contemplating acquiring him.
So was Andersson injured toward the end of his self imposed departure from Hartford?
What was this alleged incident that occurred that made things untenable for him to stay in Hartford?
His assertion about feeling safe depicts some untoward work environment in Hartford, was there any?
The Rangers have publicly never commented on any of his assertions.
