Where are all my Anton Fanders at?

Anton Lander carved out a run of hockey in North America that saw him be a strong contributor to the Edmonton Oilers AHL teams, but never with the big club. He was drafted by the Oilers in the second round of the 2009 draft, and arrived in Edmonton two years later.

When he did, he earned a spot on the opening day roster of the Oilers, making his NHL debut on Oct. 9, 2011 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. He’d play 56 of the Oilers’ first 60 games that year, scoring two goals and six points, before being sent down to the AHL, scoring a goal and five points in 14 games for the Oklahoma City Barons.

Lander would start his sophomore season in the AHL, but had two recalls to the big club, and only played 11 NHL games, scoring one assist. He found much more success with the Barons, however, scoring nine goals and 20 points in 47 games, and that would be true of the remainder of his tenure in North America.

He would appear in 215 games across six seasons for the Oilers, scoring just 10 goals and 35 points, but he found other ways to contribute. HockeyViz pegged his contributions at that of a second-line player in his final three seasons, and he was an original analytics darling as teams across the league began to adopt it more and more.

Especially in his later years, he was mired by strong defensive numbers, and an absolute inability to generate offence when on the ice, carrying a 4.52 on-ice shooting percentage at five-on-five in his NHL career.

His final season in North America saw him score 25 goals and 55 points in 42 games for the Condors, helping bring his career AHL totals to 62 goals and 163 points in 178 games.

Lander would leave for the KHL in the 2017-18 season to play for Ak Bars Kazan, winning the Gagarin Cup in his first year before returning for a second. He then spent two seasons with the league’s Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, scoring 51 goals and 131 points in 199 games. After a year in the Swiss Elite League, he returned to his home in Sweden to play for Timrå IK, where he was swiftly named captain of the team.

He’s continued to play for the same team he came up through the Swedish junior ranks with, scoring 62 goals and 151 points in 380 games. Now 35, Lander is set to return for another season.

Lander was always a frustrating player for fans to follow, because it always felt as if he was ready to take that next step, doubly so after his breakout 2014-15 season with the Oilers. Then, at 23 years old, he started the year with the Barons, scoring nine goals and 31 points in 29 games, before earning a recall to the Oilers and swiftly racked up six goals and 20 points in 38 games.

It helped earn him his first and only full season in the NHL in 2015-16, but he couldn’t replicate those numbers, scoring just one goal and three points in 61 games. A classic NHL-AHL career tweener, it always felt like there was more to give.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s managing editor and The Nation Network’s news director. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.

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