Andersson’s window
Rangers bring up rookie for ’18-19 debut
He’d been patiently waiting for his turn, and it took just over a month.
The Rangers called up Lias Andersson from AHL Hartford on Monday evening, presumably to put him right into the lineup for Tuesday night’s Garden match against the Canadiens. It would be Andersson’s NHL season debut after the No. 7-overall pick from the 2017 draft played nine games with the big club last season.
Yet Andersson, who turned 20 years old on Oct. 13, did not make the Rangers out of training camp. In a competition general manager Jeff Gorton said “went down to the wire,” Andersson had been barely outplayed by both Brett Howden and Filip Chytil. So he went to the Wolf Pack with a positive attitude, and now it has paid off.
“We did have that meeting with him, and it hit him hard, as it probably should and it did,” assistant GM Chris Drury recently told The Post during a trip up to Hartford to watch Andersson. “It’s not easy to be that close at such a young age and get sent here. I’ve seen some kids in my four years working for Jeff take two weeks when they get here. For a kid that age to turn it around and be ready, mentally and physically, fairly quickly is impressive to see.”
On that same trip, Andersson made it very clear he enjoyed playing for Hartford. But he also made something else very clear when he was asked if he thought he could be helping the Rangers right now.
“Yes, I do,” Andersson said. “That’s the only thing I’m going to say. Yes, I do.”
In his 14 games with the Wolf Pack, Andersson was playing top-line minutes as well as on the power play and penalty kill. The ultra-competitive Swede put up four goals and 12 points, highlighted by his “Gordie Howe Hat Trick” on his 20th birthday, when he got into a fight, scored a goal and notched an assist against Providence.
This move also likely means Howden likely won’t play against the Canadiens, suffering an upper-body injury during Sunday night’s 3-1 win over the Sabres, the Blueshirts’ third consecutive victory. Although the injury was “nothing serious,” according to Howden, first-year coach David Quinn also said the team is going to “err on the side of caution.”
It had been a bit of a surprise Howden was on the team instead of Andersson in the first place. The Rangers had targeted Andersson in the draft, and when they traded Derek Stepan and Antti Raanta to the Coyotes, part of the return was the No. 7 pick they then used to take him.
Andersson, at 6-foot-1 and 205 pounds, made a good impression in his first training camp, but went back to Sweden for the beginning of the year before playing in the World Junior tournament around Christmas time. When his team came in second, he famously threw his silver medal to a fan in the stands.
Andersson did stay in North America after that, and following the recovery from a shoulder injury, he joined the Wolf Pack. He was eventually called up and made his NHL debut on March 26, scoring his only goal in the seven games he played to finish the season.
Yet after a long summer of training, and a quick stint in the minors, Andersson is back on Broadway and hoping he sticks.
“I don’t think there are any huge holes in his game,” Drury said, “but I think everything he’s good at, if he does it a little bit better, it’s going to make a world of difference for whenever he gets there.”