Montreal Canadiens: What Went Wrong For Lias Andersson?

When current Montreal Canadiens executive Jeff Gorton and his hockey operations team made their way to the podium to announce the New York Rangers first round pick in 2017, they thought they were getting a franchise player.

At 7th overall they selected Lias Andersson, a 6’0 center who as an 18-year-old had just completed a solid season playing against men in the Swedish Hockey League. While it was considered a bit of a reach by some, he was rated outside the top 10 in most public pre-draft rankings, nobody could have predicted how big a bust he would turn out to be.

Everything started well enough. Andersson returned to Sweden and suited up for Frolunda HC. He performed very well putting up seven goals and seven assists for 14 points in 22 games in the very defensive minded league. From there he went to the World Junior Hockey Championships where he was named Sweden’s captain.

He had a great tournament scoring six goals in seven games, all the while playing through a separated shoulder, and led his nation to the gold medal game. After losing to Canada in the final, the Canadiens signee infamously went Ricky Bobby and tossed his silver medal into the crowd.

Hey the guy doesn’t like to lose, nothing wrong with that. If you’re not first, you’re last right?  He would eventually get the medal back from the fan who caught it. No harm done.

From the World Juniors he went to New York to rehab his shoulder injury and upon recovery joined the Rangers AHL affiliate in Hartford. He appeared in 24 games with the Wolf Pack putting up a respectable 14 points before his whirlwind year culminated with a late season call-up to the NHL. In a debut fit for Broadway, Andersson became the youngest player in Rangers history to score a goal in his debut.

Unfortunately for the Rangers and their fans that was the height of the Andersson experience. Over the next couple of seasons, he bounced back and forth between New York and Hartford and although Andersson performed reasonably well in the minors it didn’t translate to much NHL success. He struggled at both ends of the ice and would eventually request a trade and return to Sweden. Gorton dealt him to the Los Angeles Kings in 2020.

What went wrong is an age-old tale. He was likely picked higher than he should have, creating unrealistic expectations. It can be argued that he was rushed to the NHL while others prospects were allowed to marinate longer in the AHL.

The Rangers did not put him in much of an opportunity to succeed either as he was always mired on the fourth line playing limited minutes with limited players. Of course, he didn’t take advantage of the opportunities he did get or show that he deserved a spot higher up in the lineup.

So what came first?  The chicken or the egg? His last three seasons in the Kings organization have been the same story.

It’s a story that Gorton and Nick Bobrov, the Rangers director of European scouting at the time, know all too well. The fact that despite going through the process of drafting Andersson to watching him struggle to eventually trading him, they still believe there could be untapped potential unlocked with the Canadiens is very fascinating. It’s also somewhat of an omission of their own errors during his development.

Whether Andersson can be salvaged as a member of the Canadiens remains to be seen but the fact that Gorton has an open mind and is willing to give him another chance is reason enough to pay attention. His signing is something, it’s not nothing. He will certainly be one of most interesting names to keep an eye on at training camp and personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a different Lias Andersson than the one we’ve seen in previous NHL stops.

Perhaps the player joining the Canadiens more resembles the one that Gorton and Bobrov envisioned when they drafted him just six years ago.

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