At the last development camp, the head coach of the Rocket, Jean-François Houle, was asked about Lias Andersson, freshly hired by the Canadian.
“Lias has a lot of experience, he produced almost a point per game in the American League last season. Hopefully he will be a mentor and help ease the pressure our youngsters will feel to produce offense,” Houle replied.
Good words, then. The kind of words you often hear when a team hires a player in mid-career, a good veteran of the American League, but unable to break into the NHL. Think Alex Belzile, Chris Terry or Xavier Ouellet, all productive for the Rocket.
Trouble is, Andersson is only 24, turning 25 in October.
“It’s always good to hear compliments, but I want to play in the National League, said the Swede, in an interview with La Presse. I’m not afraid to work to get there. But I have nothing against the American League, I had fun playing there. »
On this Friday, Andersson speaks to us from Gothenburg, Sweden, where he is training for the upcoming season. A season in which he would like to build on his last campaign. A member of the Ontario Reign, the Los Angeles Kings’ farm club, he has amassed 59 points (31 goals, 28 assists) in 67 games. Andersson is dominant in the AHL, at least offensively.
In the NHL, on the other hand, it is more complicated. One game in 2022-23, and two points from 20 games in 2021-22.
If he wants to encourage himself, Andersson only has to look at a few examples from his draft year. Again last year, players from this 2017 vintage finally hatched.
Andersson noticed those players who “hatched late”. “I think I took steps in the right direction last season. It was the first time I played a full year in an important role. It was my first full year without injury or recall, where I was in one place from start to finish. »
His remark about stability is not trivial; a look at his HockeyDB page is indeed an experience that could be described as chromatic, if such a thing exists.
During three seasons (2017-2018, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021), he played games in three leagues: the NHL, the AHL and the Swedish Premier League. The pandemic partly explains the situation in 2020-2021, since activities in the Swedish league had started in the fall, a few months before those of the NHL.
Still, his back and forth between Sweden and North America made headlines at the time. Noted columnist Larry Brooks of the New York Post has had the stuff of eight papers over the years.
Did the New York Rangers bet on the right horse by drafting a player generally expected in the middle of the 1st round in 7th place? Was David Quinn, his head coach from his second season, coaching him adequately by employing him with support players? Is his case too much to handle if, as Brooks wrote at the time, he had come to communicate directly with John Davidson, then Rangers president?
The subject remains delicate. “A lot was going on,” he said noncommittally. I don’t have any regrets, but I don’t know if it’s okay not to have any. But I never did anything wrong to anyone, I was just making what I felt were the best decisions for me at the time. »
The Rangers were then directed to Jeff Gorton, current vice-president of hockey operations for the Canadiens. Nick Bobrov, co-director of amateur recruiting in Montreal, was director of recruiting in Europe for those same Rangers. Andersson says he has had “no contact” with them since signing with CH.
Instead, he cites two unexpected names, William Lagesson and Frédéric Allard, like those who praised the organization to him. He trains with Lagesson in the summer and played with Allard in Ontario, California. It is without forgetting the indestructible Nate Thompson, another teammate in Ontario, who spoke well of Martin St-Louis. Thompson and St. Louis played together in Tampa from 2009 to 2014.
Andersson says he left the Kings because he felt his chances of returning to the NHL were “better” elsewhere. The Canadian certainly does not have the depth of the Kings in terms of quality, but in terms of quantity, there is congestion up front. However, his guaranteed salary for the year is $450,000, and his actual salary in Laval is $375,000. Such a gap suggests that the team will offer him a recall if necessary.
“First, playing in the NHL is never easy, no matter the team,” he warns. You cannot arrive at camp and think that a position is reserved for you. So I have to compete. I did not compare the formations. I just picked the place where I think I can play good hockey. »