RALEIGH, N.C. — They met before Frederik Andersen had ever pulled a Norfolk Admirals sweater over his head. Before he was drafted by an NHL team for the second time, or experienced his first trade, or felt the highs that come with signing a long-term contract or navigated the three straight short-term deals that have kept him with the Carolina Hurricanes these past five years.
To fully understand how much pain Andersen is carrying into his first Stanley Cup Final, you must understand that Claude Lemieux wasn’t just his agent for these last 15 years.
Their relationship stopped being about business long ago.
“It was a lot more than that,” Andersen told The Athletic on Monday.
There are no words, really, for the news the Hurricanes’ goaltender received between Games 4 and 5 of the Eastern Conference final. It was the kind of phone call no one wants to imagine taking.
Yet after finding out Thursday morning that Lemieux had died at age 60, Andersen managed to steady himself and channel his emotions into delivering a 23-save performance the following night to help propel the Hurricanes to the NHL’s championship series against the Vegas Golden Knights.
That night, he was visibly shaken when given the team’s player of the game award by teammate Sebastian Aho in the dressing room.
On Monday, his voice quivered when answering questions about Lemieux on the eve of the Stanley Cup Final.
“We go through stuff in life,” Andersen said. “Sometimes it’s impossible not to bring it into the room.”
So while he is objectively at the pinnacle of his 13-year NHL career, carrying a 12-1 record through these playoffs with 12.48 goals saved above expected (per HockeyStats), he’s also carrying a heavy heart.
Everyone around him can feel it.
“It’s been heartbreaking,” said Hurricanes teammate Jaccob Slavin.
“This is hard for Freddie,” added Nikolaj Ehlers, a fellow Dane and close friend. “I think he wants to win this Cup even more now. For Claude and the Lemieux family. It was pretty special to see him — how good he played in that last game.
“You could see he was playing for something more than just a hockey game. That was special.”
News of Lemieux’s death sent shockwaves through the close-knit hockey world. Not only did he play 21 seasons in the NHL, but he also spent the past 16 years representing players like Andersen, developing a reputation for creating tight relationships with them in the process.
The fact that it came just days after he carried the torch for a pregame ceremony at the Bell Centre made it even more jarring. Lemieux had cleared that appearance with Andersen ahead of time, since the Montreal Canadiens — Lemieux’s old team — were preparing to face Andersen’s Hurricanes. The 36-year-old goaltender didn’t hesitate.
“Right away, obviously I said, ‘Go for it,’” he said. “It’s a very big honor for a storied franchise to get to do that and be the guy that they asked to do that. It speaks really highly of how he thinks of his loved ones to ask that of me.”
Lemieux would have had to maintain an air of neutrality for this Final, with Golden Knights defenseman Rasmus Andersson being another of his longstanding clients. Lemieux and Andersson first met at a hockey camp in Sweden that the defenseman drew an invite to because his older brother, Calle Andersson, was already represented by Lemieux’s 4sports Hockey agency.
“I think I was 13 or 14 years old,” Rasmus Andersson said. “He was there when I played pro in Sweden. He was the one who brought me over to Barrie (in Canada). He was there in the American League. He was there in the NHL.
“He did my first contract, and he was going to do the next one, too.”
In fact, this season began with the pending unrestricted free agent receiving a visit from Lemieux in Calgary. They wound up speaking more frequently than usual as the agent ultimately helped guide Andersson through the trade process that took him from the Flames to Vegas in January.
Andersson last heard from Lemieux after the Golden Knights punched their ticket to the Cup by eliminating the Colorado Avalanche last Tuesday and described the days since learning of his death as “rough.”
“It’s one of those things you just wish it wasn’t true,” Andersson said. “I don’t think anyone saw it coming, what happened. I mean, we all saw him walk out with the torch in Montreal.
“I was proud for him, to see that and how cool it was.”
Andersson knows that Lemieux would be proud to see two of his clients facing each other with the Cup on the line, but the realization that he won’t be around to witness it brings with it a certain heaviness.
The Hurricanes are trying to rally around their goaltender by letting him know that they’ve got his back, but as head coach Rod Brind’Amour said, “I mean, what really can you do?”
“You’re never going to take that pain away from somebody; you’re just trying to, I guess, ease it a little bit,” Hurricanes forward Jordan Martinook said. “Try to make him smile. Obviously, he’s going to be thinking about it, but he’s also in probably one of the best times of his life. He’s going to mourn the way he needs to mourn, but obviously (playing in the Stanley Cup Final) is probably the best thing that could be happening right now.”
Despite the pain, there was a clear sense of gratitude from Andersen on Monday afternoon. He mentioned how distant the NHL and the Cup felt growing up in a nation not known for producing world-class hockey players. And he discussed how he learned to embrace the failures of seasons past as being part of his journey.
Asked if he’d be carrying a little something extra into this series, given his close relationship with Lemieux, he replied: “I think it would be hard not to.
“Yeah, I mean, I’m always trying to talk about Cup stories with him. He’s told me so many.”