Rasmus Andersson got a substance from his cause Claude Lemieux connected Wednesday, the time aft the Vegas Golden Knights punched their summons to the Stanley Cup Final.
The adjacent day, Lemieux was gone.
“I couldn’t judge it erstwhile I got the telephone yesterday,” Andersson said.
Lemieux, a four-time Stanley Cup champion and 1995 Conn Smythe Trophy victor who became a well-respected cause successful the hockey community, died connected Thursday by evident termination astatine 60 years old.
Andersson was 1 of Lemieux’s clients with 4sports Hockey. Among different players Lemieux represented were erstwhile Knights guardant Victor Olofsson, Detroit Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider and Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen.
Andersson had known Lemieux since helium was 13 years aged erstwhile helium came to North America from Sweden to play with the Barrie Colts of the Ontario Hockey League. Andersson was inferior teammates with Brendan Lemieux, who played 307 NHL games successful his career.
“I cognize firsthand conscionable however awesome Claude was and however bully helium treated different people,” Andersson said Friday. “I’m sending each my emotion to (wife) Deborah, Brendan and the different kids (sons Michael and Christopher, and girl Claudia). Just terrible.”
Andersson said helium and Lemieux talked much implicit the past twelvemonth and a fractional than they ever had before, due to the fact that the defenseman was among the apical commercialized targets disposable implicit that span.
They talked “two, 3 times a time this full season” until the Knights completed the woody to acquire Andersson from the Calgary Flames connected Jan. 18.
“It’s 1 of those things you conscionable can’t judge it’s true,” Andersson said. “He meant a batch to maine successful my career.”
Andersson, 29, is simply a pending unrestricted escaped cause this upcoming offseason. While it’s inactive expected the Knights volition motion Andersson to a caller contract, Lemieux was expected to beryllium the constituent antheral connected those discussions.
“Me and Claude, we laid retired a plan,” Andersson said. “It was mostly for me, him and different guy. We’re going to effort to fulfill that program and we’ll instrumentality it from there.”
Lemieux played 1,215 regular play games, and 234 playoff contests, with six antithetic teams. A second-round prime of the Montreal Canadiens successful 1983, Lemieux won his archetypal Stanley Cup successful his rookie twelvemonth successful 1986 with Montreal.
Lemieux was the Canadiens’ honorary torch bearer anterior to Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final connected Monday.
Tu es chez toi ici, Claude Lemieux! 👏
Welcome home, Claude Lemieux!#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/fQvfhZSNUB
— x - Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) May 26, 2026
Lemieux won back-to-back titles successful 1995 with the New Jersey Devils, wherever helium won the Conn Smythe Trophy arsenic playoff MVP with 13 goals successful 20 games, and 1996 with the Colorado Avalanche. His past rubric came with the Devils successful 2000.
Andersson remembers Lemieux much arsenic the household man. He recalled Lemieux being excited astir becoming a gramps past season. Lemieux came to Andersson’s location successful October, and Lemieux spent fractional the clip playing with Andersson’s 2 kids, Benjamin and Lucy.
Benjamin showed Lemieux his postulation of Avengers enactment figures, and the 2 would play for “hours and hours.”
“Just an awesome human,” Andersson said.
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Contact Danny Webster astatine dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 connected X.
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