The Los Angeles Kings acquired forward Lias Andersson from the New York Rangers yesterday, in exchange for the 60th overall pick.
Andersson was the seventh-overall pick in 2017 and joined the Rangers as a very promising prospect. He produced at a strong rate in his draft year, with nine goals and 19 points in 42 SHL games as an 18-year-old. He also had a fairly good season after being drafted, scoring seven goals and 14 points in 22 SHL games in 2017-18, before joining the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack, where he had five goals and 14 points in 25 games.
However, things went downhill from there. He split the 2018-19 season between the NHL and AHL and failed to make an impact with the Rangers, scoring just two goals and six points in 42 games. Then this past year, he once again split time between the Rangers and the Wolf Pack and saw his production cut in half in both leagues. He eventually went back to Sweden, where he performed quite well, scoring seven goals and 12 points in 15 SHL games.
In terms of Andersson’s struggles, while he certainly didn’t make an impact in the NHL, you could argue that he wasn’t really given much of a chance to do so with the Rangers. In 66 games over his three seasons with the organization, he averaged just 10:33 per game in ice time. He was also used in a very defensive role, with an offensive zone start percentage of just 45 per cent over those 66 games. On top of this, while Andersson didn’t provide much offense, he also has a career shooting percentage of just 5.1 per cent and the Rangers had a shooting percentage of just 5.6 per cent while he was on the ice. So while his three goals and nine points in 66 career games don’t look good, a lot went into those numbers.
The good news is that Andersson is just 21 years old and still has time to develop. While it may be a stretch to hold out hope on him becoming a legitimate top-six forward, he could still end up being effective in a smaller, defensive role.
So while there’s a possibility that this trade doesn’t work out, I’d say the chances of Andersson becoming a useful NHL player are, at the very least, as high as they would have been for whoever Los Angeles would have taken at 60th overall. Considering the Kings had a ton of draft picks anyways and have a deep prospect pool already, I like this deal and I think given an opportunity, Andersson could become an important part of the Kings’ lineup.
***NOTE: We've launched a HockeyBuzz Kings Twitter account! For anyone interested, you can follow @HB_LAKings for updates on articles, Kings news, etc. We're starting right from scratch, so any followers would be appreciated!***
Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»