The Los Angeles Kings have done a marvelous job replenishing their system following their glory years some five years ago or so. Kupari, Fagemo, Vilardi, Turcotte, Kaliyev, and now Byfield and Grans. That is a loaded depth chart.

The Kings added to their prospect depth by trading a second-round pick to the New York Rangers for Lis Andersson. Let's get to it.

What the Kings get

Andersson was taken with the seventh overall pick in 2017. It should be noted that that was a reach at the time. The ISS had him ranked 25^th overall; Dobber Prospects had him 17^th; Bob McKenzie had him 13^th; Sports Illustrated had him 17^th. The evolving picture is pretty clear: most ranked had him lower, and in some cases much lower, than seventh overall.

It should be said that the 2017 draft didn't blow the doors off. When we look at the names taken in the 10 picks following Andersson, only two regular NHLers have emerged so far (Necas, Suzuki) and most of the rest of the first round is filled with guys who have yet to prove they belong (Brannstrom, Liljegren, Frost, Joseph, Jokiharju, Tolvanen, Kostin). This isn't the 2015 Bruins where within a year it was obvious they had completely messed up.

Andersson has done nothing at the NHL level, but at the same time, he wasn't given much help. In his only full-ish year, he played 418 minutes at 5-on-5. He skated at least 100 minutes with seven different players in that time. Those players are as follows (from Hockey Viz):

So, Andersson's two most-common forwards were Ryan Strome and a guy with 155 career games by his age-28 season. That's really not a lot of help. He was yo-yo'd between the pressbox and the lineup, and the NHL and AHL.

In totality, Andersson wasn't really setup to succeed but at the same time, he was over-drafted and that put additional pressure on him. Things had fractured between him and the franchise, and now here we are.

Andersson was never meant to be an offensive dynamo. His game was always to be a two-way forward. Even if he pans out in Los Angeles, I don't think we should be expecting 60-point seasons down the road. Basically, if he can manage to develop into a third-line, two-way centre, that's a huge win. In other words, I think his ceiling is less Sean Monahan and more Phillip Danault, fantasy-wise. Going to Los Angeles, even if he pans out, he'll be stuck behind at least Kopitar and Byfield for the foreseeable future. Even if Byfield isn't there in 2020-21, I would still expect Jeff Carter or even Adrian Kempe to be ahead of him on the depth chart.

It will be curious to see what the Kings do with Andersson and Kempe. Presumably, they want one of them to be the third-line centre and the other to be a winger. As to which will be which, well, only The Shadow knows. Ultimately, with all the prospects the Kings have, I think there's a chance both Kempe and Andersson are moved to the wing (and Kempe may be moved to another franchise, in fact).

Considering Andersson was an afterthought for the Rangers last year, this doesn't change much for them. It just adds a different prospect to the pool.

Who this helps

Lias Andersson

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Brett Howden

Filip Chytil

Who this hurts

Adrian Kempe