CRANBERRY — What’s that cliché? Third time’s a charm? Filip Hallander is certainly hoping he can make that work for him. After all, not too many players keep boomeranging back to the Pittsburgh Penguins organization like him.

Hallander, 25, is in training camp hoping he can be a lot more than a cliché or an afterthought in his third time joining or rejoining the team. So far, the Penguins seem to be giving the 6-foot-1, 203-pound forward a good look. He has spent a significant amount of time in the early days of camp doing drills and scrimmages with team veterans Bryan Rust and/or Rickard Rakell.

Advertisement

“You’ve got to take advantage when you get a chance like that to play with such good players,” Hallander said. “So I’m just trying to be around them, learn as much as I can. You don’t know how long it’s going to last, so you just take every day and try and get better.

“It’s very fun. It’s hard, but it’s fun.”

It’s also not something that might have been predictable as recently as last April Fool’s Day.

Let’s go through Hallander’s on-again, off-again relationship with the Penguins over several years.

He was a second-round pick by the Penguins in 2018 and played in his native Sweden before being traded to Toronto in the Kasperi Kapanen deal in August 2020.

Advertisement

A year later, the Penguins reacquired him from the Maple Leafs in the Jared McCann deal, and he came to play in North America for the first time. He spent 2021-22 and 2022-23 in North America. But that was mostly with AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, with no points in just three NHL games over those two seasons.

So he signed a five-year deal to play with Timra in the top Swedish league.

Late in April this year, Hallander signed a two-year deal with the Penguins with an AAV of $775,000 after he was able to get out of his contract with Timra.

And no wonder the Penguins were still interested, given the way he blossomed playing for Timra.

Advertisement

“It was good for me going back (to Sweden) for two years, getting a lot of confidence, playing a lot of minutes and in a big role,” Hallander said. “It was two nice years, and it set me up good for coming back.”

He had 14 goals, 36 points in 2023-24 before busting out last season, when he had 26 goals, 53 points – ranking second in the league in both categories — in 51 games.

“I think I got faster – faster and stronger,” Hallander said. “And then playing on the bigger (international size) ice, it’s a bit of a different style of play. A lot more skating and open ice. That suits me a lot. I was able to use my skating a bit more.

“And then, I don’t know, my confidence grew as the season went along and I played good.”

Advertisement

The Penguins never forgot about him — even sending assistant general manager Jason Spezza to watch him — and he never forgot about them.

“My goal was always to come back here someday,” Hallander said. “I was 22 or 23 when I went back, so I’m still at a good age to get something going. It was according to plan.”

However, if Hallander thought the competition to stick with the Penguins was tough before, sending him back to Sweden, it’s tougher this fall by several fold.

That’s fine by him.

“As everybody knows, it’s going to be competitive, probably the most competitive it’s been in a long time here,” Hallander said. “That’s how you want it to be. It’s going to be hard. Nothing is guaranteed, and everybody wants to play up in Pittsburgh. It’s going to be hard, but I’m up for the challenge.”

Advertisement

More so than the first couple times, it seems.

The post Filip Hallander is Back, Back Again; Loves Penguins Competition appeared first on Pittsburgh Hockey Now.

Related Headlines