The situation involving former New York Rangers first-round draft pick Lias Andersson and his departure from the team just got a little more mysterious. Andersson, 21, is back home in Sweden after leaving the Rangers back in December. It had been reported at the time that he had requested a trade and was suspended for walking away from the team. However, in a new interview with a Swedish media outlet, Anderssen stated he can't talk about why he was suspended.
"I'm suspended moving forward because of incidents I can't really talk about," said Anderssen. "Right now, I'm not doing too much except watching hockey," he told SVT Sport.
"Obviously, I would like to playing right now but I'll talk about that at a later time. It was an untenable situation for me as a person. Now it feels good to be home and to be able to rest at home."
Andersson added that he's not practicing right now because he's nursing an upper-body injury. He also states he has "other problems to solve first" and that "the motivation to play hockey has been bigger."
As for his future in the business, the seventh overall pick in 2017 said he's presently trying not to think about it too much.
"I would obviously like to play hockey but I'm not allowed to do that at this time. My contract lasts for another year-and-a-half, so if things go badly, it will be another year-and-a-half without hockey. But, hopefully, we will find a solution so that I can play again soon."
Andersson played 10 games with the New York Rangers this season, averaging less than 10 minutes of ice-time per match. When he left the team in December, it was felt he was unhappy with his ice-time and development with the team. However, these new comments cast some doubt on that, indicating something more serious may have happened to cause his exit.
Andersson is well known for the infamous incident where he threw his silver medal into the crowd in frustration after Sweden lost the gold medal to Canada at the 2018 World Junior Hockey Championship.
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