The Rangers acquired a second-round pick (No. 60) in the 2020 NHL Draft for the 21-year-old forward and used it to select William Cuylle, a forward from Windsor of the Ontario Hockey League.
Before New York selected forward Kaapo Kakko at No. 2 last year, Andersson was its highest draft pick since it selected goalie
Al Montoya
at No. 6 in the 2004 NHL Draft.
"I try to see everything positive in life," Andersson said. "What happened in New York obviously wasn't best for me back then, but I feel confident that I can do stuff different and I can do things better. I'm feeling mentally so much stronger and ready for the next chapter of my career]."
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Andersson's father, Niklas Andersson, was a forward who played 164 NHL games and is a European amateur scout for the Kings.
"My dad called me real quick and said he was happy, excited for me," Andersson said. "He got shocked too, that I got traded. He saw it on the TV, so he was shocked too, and happy for me."
Los Angeles general manager Rob Blake said, "Lias Andersson was a player we looked hard at a few years ago in the draft. We were real familiar with him having his father as one of our scouts in Europe for a number of years now. The relationship with his former team, for whatever reason, didn't seem to really be a great fit."
Andersson scored nine points (three goals, six assists) in 66 games with the Rangers from 2017-20, including one assist in 17 games this season. New York loaned Andersson to HV71 of the Swedish Hockey League for the 2020-21 season. He has scored four points (one goal, three assists) in four games.
"Obviously you take a guy that high you hope he has an impact sooner than later," New York GM Jeff Gorton said. "At this point in his career, it's hard to say. Maybe we brought him over too soon. I don't know. A lot of things just didn't go the way we wanted to. He's still a young guy. I think he needed a fresh start. We just made a decision. I thought maybe it was best for him to move on and start over, and same for us."
Andersson was suspended by the Rangers after leaving Hartford of the American Hockey League in December to return to Sweden. Before that, he reportedly asked to be traded. The Rangers loaned Andersson to HV71 in late January, and he played 15 games, scoring 12 points (seven goals, five assists).
Andersson played seven games with the Rangers in 2017-18, scoring in his NHL debut against the Washington Capitals on March 26 after joining Hartford more than two months earlier. He split the 2018-19 season between New York and Hartford; he played 42 games with the Rangers, scoring six points (two goals, four assists).
