Lias Andersson declines Rangers' invitation to attend July training camp
Rangers center Lias Andersson sets against the Bruins at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 27. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Lias Andersson, the Rangers' former first-round pick who returned to Sweden in November after he was sent to the minor leagues, has declined an invitation by the Rangers to come to their training camp in July for the NHL start, a person with knowledge of the situation confirmed. The New York Post was first to report the news.
The decision by Andersson, 21, to decline the invitation would seem to cement the end of his time with the organization. The seventh overall pick in the 2017 draft has struggled to grab hold of a place on the roster.
After not making the Rangers out of training camp in 2018, he played well at AHL Hartford and got called up after about a month. He played 42 games in 2018-19 and had two goals and four assists. He made the Rangers out of camp in 2019, but never was able to get off the fourth line. He was on the penalty-killing unit early on, but other than that, struggled to get ice time, and managed just one assist in 17 games before being sent to Hartford on Nov. 17.
He had four goals and five points in 13 games for Hartford before leaving the team after Christmas and returning to Sweden. He requested a trade and spoke about how his mental health had been an issue both while he was with the Rangers and when he was at Hartford. The Rangers suspended him for a time, but after team president John Davidson spoke to him, eventually the Rangers lifted the suspension and loaned him to a team in the Swedish Hockey League.
With the NHL taking steps toward re-starting its season with 24 teams playing at one of two hub sites and the Rangers being paired against the Carolina Hurricanes in a best-of-five play-in series to qualify for the 16-team playoffs, players have been skating at team practice sites since last week in Phase 2 of the league’s return-to-play plan.
Phase 3 of the plan, training camp, is supposed to start July 10. The league has not announced how many players will be on the rosters for the hub sites, or how many will be invited to training camp, but speculation had been that teams would be allowed to bring 28 skaters and an unlimited number of goaltenders with them to the hub sites.
Andersson has three goals and six assists and is minus-20 in 66 career games with the Rangers.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
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