Lias Andersson miss not a massive hit to Rangers’ prospect pool

The Rangers’ prospect pool is regarded as one of — if not the — best in the NHL.

That is a necessary grain of salt to go with the fact that No. 7-overall pick from 2018, Lias Andersson, was suspended just before the Christmas roster freeze for leaving AHL Hartford in the wake of his trade request. How Andersson thinks any of this is going to expedite his departure is hard to fathom, as he surely was being shopped soon after his most recent failure to impress at the NHL level and subsequent demotion to the Wolf Pack.

For the more astute observer, coming along with the Andersson fiasco is the news that former Rangers defenseman Ryan Graves was leading the league in plus/minus. The 24-year-old Graves (no relation to Adam) was basically given away to the Avalanche in a Feb. 2018 trade that brought back their disappointing second-rounder Chris Bigras, currently on the blue line for AHL Lehigh Valley in the Flyers system after the Rangers never tendered him a qualifying offer. Of course, plus-minus is an antiquated and not-very-insightful stat, but Graves being on for 26 more goals-for than goals-against is impressive.

That fact is that Graves never made a big impression on the Rangers after they took him in the fourth round (No. 110 overall) in 2013. The lefty-shot out of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, was in three training camps and never made it to a final cut. It was a crowded competition on the left side, with the likes of Ryan McDonagh, Marc Staal, Keith Yandle, Brady Skjei, and Brendan Smith all established NHL players. In 207 games with Hartford, Graves had 21 goals, 43 points, and a minus-26 rating (albeit for bad Wolf Pack teams).

Measuring 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds, with pretty good skating ability but limited instincts at either end of the ice, Graves seemed like the quintessential mid-season call-up as a stop-gap for an NHL injury, but he never made it to the big show with the Rangers. He was given his chance with Colorado, where he played 26 games this past season — a healthy scratch for all of their 12 playoff games, losing in the second round — before avoiding salary arbitration and signing a one-year, $735,000 deal this summer.

After all that, Graves seems to have figured out what it takes to stick in the NHL. It certainly helps that the Avalanche are a deep team, scoring the second-most goals per game while allowing the 10th-fewest, making them one of the best in the West. They have a Calder Trophy front-runner in Cale Makar, a right-shot defenseman who has made their defense as a whole look really good, even with Tyson Barrie having been traded to the Maple Leafs. And Graves has contributed, adding six goals and 15 points in his first 36 games.

“He’s getting better and better at moving the puck out of our zone, and he’s finding spots to jump in and be part of our offense,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar recently told the Denver Post. “Whether that’s just blasting pucks from the blue line or jumping up as the third or fourth guy on the rush … he’s been contributing all over the place. He’s a much-improved player from when we got him last year and hopefully he can continue to grow. He’s a big part of our team.”

There was a time when Andersson was considered a big part of the Rangers, but that time has seemingly passed. If he’s curious how it works out with sulking after a demotion and leaving the team, Andersson only needs to look to downstate Connecticut where Josh Ho-Sang has returned to AHL Bridgeport as the Islanders try to trade their mercurial winger. Who would have thought those two would be in the same market of low-leverage trade pieces?

Not the Rangers, who were so enamored with Andersson’s leadership and work ethic that they took him higher than most had projected. He was supposed to be the big return on the draft-day deal that sent Derek Stepan and Antti Raanta to Arizona, but the Rangers’ first round of 2018 was seemingly saved with Filip Chytil at No. 21.

There is almost no sure thing when it comes to prospects, which is not a sentiment that has to be reinforced to the Rangers when reviewing their draft history. But this rebuild is being fueled by quantity, filtered through the sieve of time, with the results — they hope — being quality. As Graves thrives elsewhere and Andersson awaits his departure, that concept hasn’t changed. And the Rangers are still pretty happy with their set of prospects, as would almost every other team in the league.

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