Frederik Andersen reflects on friendships with Mitch Marner, late agent Claude Lemieux ahead of Cup Final
With recent examples including Nazem Kadri, Tyler Bozak, and Phil Kessel, Marner’s Vegas Golden Knights and Andersen’s Carolina Hurricanes will go toe-to-toe in the Cup Final, beginning on Tuesday night, and both players have fond memories of their time as Maple Leafs teammates.
“I mean, Freddie was one of the guys when I first came into the League that was very open,” Marner recalled. “He invited me over, invited me to dinners. After games we’d go out to eat and just hang out and talk hockey.”
“Just the times away from the ice, in the locker room, all that stuff has been really, really fun,” Andersen said. “Just a really fun friend to have.”
“Right away, obviously I said go for it. It’s a very big honor for a very big, storied franchise to get to do that and be a guy that they asked for that honor,” Andersen said. “It speaks really highly of how he thinks of his loved ones, to ask them.”
Despite the heavy heart he’ll be playing with, the Hurricanes have made themselves available for Andersen in any way they can support their netminder, and that hasn’t been lost on him.
“It’s not easy. We go through stuff in life. Sometimes it’s impossible not to bring it into the room,” Andersen said. “We’ve had guys going to the birth of their children. Obviously that’s on the different end of the spectrum. But I can’t really say enough about the way everyone supports each other through that stuff. Everyone goes through stuff – being there for each other, it’s cool that we get to lean on each other like that.”
Game 1 gets underway at 8:00 pm eastern time from Raleigh on Tuesday night.