It has been seven years since the Pittsburgh Penguins selected Filip Hallander in the second-round of the 2018 NHL Draft.
On Thursday, he finally scored his first NHL goal as part of their 4-2 win over
the Los Angeles Kings.
It’s been a long journey for Hallander to get here in his NHL career, especially with the Penguins. They just haven’t been able to quit each other over the years, always looking for a way back together, and it might finally be paying off for both sides.
What has that journey looked like for Hallander?
- He was taken in the second-round of the 2018 NHL Draft and originally looked like one of the better prospects in the Penguins system for the time.
- The Penguins traded him to the Toronto Maple Leafs in August, 2020, as part of the trade package for forward Kasperi Kapanen.
- The Penguins re-acquired him almost exactly a year later when they sent Jared McCann to the Maple Leafs as part of the Seattle Kraken expansion draft process.
- After spending two years back in the Penguins organization and getting two brief cups of coffee in the NHL, he went back to Sweden for two years where he put together a strong career.
- Then this offseason he returned to the Penguins on a two-year deal where he has been one of the more intriguing players on the young season.
Despite his lack of NHL experience it’s not really fair to call Hallander a prospect. Because he’s not. He’s been a seasoned pro hockey player, even if most of his professional play hasn’t come in the NHL. He’s just unproven as an NHL player. But that’s kind of what makes him so interesting. The Penguins are still finding out what they have in him, and he’s still young enough to where he might still have an NHL future.
He’s also the exact type of player you want to find out about in a season like this.
He’s appeared in four of the Penguins’ first five games, and has mostly stood out in a positive way.
He has not been given a ton of ice-time to this point, and has in fact averaged the fewest 5-on-5 minutes per game of any player that’s dressed for the Penguins this season.
But he has made the most of what he’s been given.
Not only has he already collected two points, including Thursday’s shorthanded goal, but some of his on-ice defensive metrics have been strong despite taking on heavy defensive zone starts.
Aside from the numbers and metrics, he has also mostly passed the eye test. He’s shown good hockey sense, has been in the right position and has just looked like a solid depth player in his first four games.
With Rutger McGroarty and Kevin Hayes getting closer to returns from injury, and with players like Ville Koivunen, Tristan Broz and Avery Hayes down in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton knocking on the door, there is going to be a lineup crunch in the weeks and months ahead at forward. Even with that they still need to find a way for Hallander to get some ice-time to show what he can do. And it should not be hard to do that.
The argument for sending Koivunen down after a slow start was that you didn’t want to see him play in a bottom-six role when he doesn’t project to be that sort of player. If Hallander is going to have any kind of future in Pittsburgh it’s going to be as a bottom-six player and penalty killer. So there really shouldn’t be any excuse to not give him a consistent look in that role even when the aforementioned players return or get their chance.
If the goal for this season is truly about looking ahead toward the future and finding out about people, this is a real opportunity to do so.
There are no secrets with players like Hayes, Noel Accairi, Blake Lizotte or even Connor Dewar. We mostly know what they can do. We know what they are capable of. We know what type of players they are. And we know they are not going to be long-term fits for the Penguins beyond this year or next year. At least they shouldn’t be.
Hallander might be. And even if he isn’t, even if he doesn’t maintain the solid start he’s shown through four games, it is still better to find out about him one way or another.
He has done nothing to play his way out of the lineup at this point, and if anything should keep getting an increased look.
