The Penguins' prospect pool took a significant hit on Friday.
The Swedish Hockey League club Timra IK announced on Friday that forward Filip Hallander signed a five-year contract that runs through the 2027-28 season.
Hallander, 22, was in the final year of his entry-level contract with the Penguins and was set to become a restricted free agent this summer. Qualifying offers to restricted free agents have not been extended yet. The Penguins still could make Hallander a qualifying offer and retain his North American rights until he turns 27, but given the length of Hallander's contract in Sweden, it would be pointless to do so.
The deal between Hallander and Timra had been in place for at least a month, while Hallander was still playing for Wilkes-Barre. It was not a result of anything having to do with the Penguins' front office changes that happened after the season ended. Family was a factor in Hallander wanting to return home -- he and his wife Alva have a son named Colin who will be two years old early this fall.
Timra is Hallander's hometown team, and he came up through the club's youth program. He began playing for the main Timra team in 2016-17 when the team was part of the second-tier Swedish league, the Allsvenskan. He was part of the 2017-18 Timra team that earned a promotion to the SHL in the Allsvenskan's qualifying tournament, and he made his SHL debut with Timra the following season, in 2018-19. Timra was relegated back to the Allsvenskan after losing in the 2019 relegation tournament, and Hallander left to play two years for the SHL team Lulea before moving to North America in 2021.
"It's super fun to be back," Hallander said in a Swedish release from Timra. "Coming back here has always been in the back of my mind since my last game, the loss against Oskarshamn (in the relegation tournament). I've always thought that I don't want to end that way, so being back now feels really fun."
Hallander was the Penguins' second-round pick in 2018. In 2020 he was traded to the Maple Leafs as part of the deal to acquire Kasperi Kapanen. A year later, the Penguins traded Jared McCann to Toronto ahead of the Seattle expansion draft, getting Hallander and a seventh-round pick in return.
Hallander made the move to North America after the Penguins re-acquired him from Toronto, and he made his AHL debut with Wilkes-Barre. His 14 goals in 61 games ranked fourth on the team that season, and he recorded 14 assists as well. He played one game in the NHL in his rookie season, a shutout loss to the Rangers in New York.
This season Hallander ranked fourth in scoring for Wilkes-Barre with 11 goals and 22 assists in 43 games, missing significant time for two separate injuries in the second half of the season. He was recalled for two NHL games and was scoreless.
With Hallander's departure, the entire Penguins 2018 draft class is now out of the organization, and Hallander's three NHL games were all the Penguins got from any of them. The other three players the Penguins selected that year were defenseman Calen Addison (second round, traded to Minnesota in Jason Zucker trade), forward Justin Almeida (fifth round, not re-signed in 2022) and forward Liam Gorman (sixth round, traded for sixth-round pick used to draft Nolan Collins in 2022).
