It's been a whirlwind past few months for Penguins forward prospect Filip Hallander.
Hallander, 21, was the Penguins' second-round pick back in the 2018 draft. After trading Hallander to the Maple Leafs in August 2020 in the Kasperi Kapanen trade, the Penguins reacquired Hallander this past July in the Jared McCann deal, and brought him over from his native Sweden this season for his first taste of North American professional hockey.
This is the first time in Hallander's life that he's ever lived outside Sweden. He's learning how to live in a new country and adapt to the culture, while also learning how to adapt to the North American style of play and find out what it takes to be successful at the AHL level.
The jump from Luleå, Sweden to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton isn't even the biggest change Hallander's life has gone through in the last six months.
Just two weeks before Hallander left Sweden to come to Pittsburgh for training camp in the fall, he and his wife Alva welcomed their first child, a son named Colin.
It was another two months before Hallander's family would be able to join him in their new home, with COVID and visa complications delaying Alva and Colin's travel to Wilkes-Barre.
"For the first two months, I didn't see him," Hallander told me after Wilkes-Barre's practice in Cranberry last month. "That was the toughest thing, to be away from him."
Hallander's one of three fathers on Wilkes-Barre this season along with defensemen Taylor Fedun and Matt Bartkowski, both 12 years Hallander's senior. Hallander said that he's turned to his two teammates, as well as head coach J.D. Forrest, who also has two younger children, for advice during this time.
"Stuff like pediatricians in the area, they helped me with that stuff," Hallander explained. "We share some thoughts on like how much sleep we get, stuff like that."
With an infant at home, it's safe to say that Hallander's not getting as much sleep as some of his fellow rookies on Wilkes-Barre might be getting.
Players who become fathers for the first time or welcome another child into their family often speak about what that change does for their perspective on both hockey and life in general. Learning how to play in North America while learning how to be a father is a lot to take on at once, but Hallander thinks that fatherhood has helped him with this next stage in his hockey career.
"When you're stepping away from the rink and you're back home, you don't think about hockey that much," he told me. "It's a lot about just being a parent and learning new stuff every day. So if you have a bad game or something, you just let it go. You walk into the door and you have a son that you need to take care of and a wife to take care of. I'm a big thinker. I think very much. It's been good to not just think about hockey all of the time."
Forrest said that Hallander is so much more mature than most players his age, that it's often hard to believe that he's only 21.
"You know, he carries himself a different way," Forrest told me of Hallander. "He's extremely mature. He's a father, he's married, he's got his head screwed on about as good as it can be. He's a really dedicated professional."
That dedication has paid off for Hallander, who has adjusted well to the North American style of play.
Prior to the start of the season, Penguins director of player development Scott Young described the 6-foot-1, 190-pound Hallander to me as "a big, strong winger that is strong in the corners, protects the puck really well and likes to get to the front of the net." During Hallander's first stint in the Penguins' organization, the team used to show him videos of Patric Hornqvist as examples of how to position himself in front of the net and create some havoc, envisioning Hallander eventually taking on a Hornqvist-like role for the Penguins.
Hallander opened the season playing on the left side of Wilkes-Barre's third line, taking on more of a defensive, physical role. He called those early weeks in Wilkes-Barre a "surprising start" as he learned how to adapt to the pace and style of the game here.
"It was a bigger adjustment than I thought it was going to be," he said. "I think I'm getting the feeling for it now and playing better, understanding the play style more."
Over the course of the season he's carved out a role as Wilkes-Barre's first-line left wing, where he's consistently been for the last month.
"He's been doing a great job on picking up the pace of play here in North America and grasping onto what the Penguins want to do and what we see for him in the future," Forrest said. "I think he's been a real force."
Hallander's recorded four goals and nine assists in his 35 games this season. His first AHL goal came on Oct. 22, driving to the net and following up on a rebound from a Nathan Legare chance:
He's played on Wilkes-Barre's top power play unit, scoring this goal on the man advantage in Springfield:
Hallander's third goal of the year was an overtime-winning goal in Charlotte:
His last goal was on Jan. 21 against Toronto, another power play goal:
While the Penguins are hoping that Hallander can continue to add to his offensive production, they've been encouraged with his overall game to this point.
"He's one of our more consistent forwards up there," Forrest said. "He does a lot for us. He's found the net a couple times, hopefully he can find some more consistency on that side of it. But he does enough of the other parts of the game where there's value with him all over the ice."
Hallander's linemates for most of the last month have been center Felix Robert and right wing Valtteri Puustinen, Wilkes-Barre's leading goal-scorers this season with 10 and 15 goals respectively. Hallander's role on that line has centered a lot around maintaining possession and getting the puck to his two linemates.
"They're pretty skilled," he said, "I try to make space for them and try to be hard on the puck and win it back. So I think we complement each other good, it's fun to play with them."
Hallander has already earned his first recall to the NHL, but is still working toward his first NHL game. He spent some time on the Penguins' taxi squad last month as insurance during the team's western road trip, traveling and practicing with the team.
"It was a good experience to get up there and see the guys," he said. "You just get a feeling of how it is to be up there. It was a fun week, you see some games and see how they practice and everything. I learned a lot from that."
That learning experience also now has Hallander all the more hungry to get a real shot at the next level.
"You get a feeling how it is up there," he said. "When you come back down, you want to get up as soon as possible."
