Earlier this week, the Pittsburgh Penguins announced that they signed forward Filip Hallander to a two-year contract.

Per the team, Hallander’s contract starts with the 2025-26 season and carries a $775K cap hit at the NHL level. For Hallander, this is now his third stint with the Penguins organization.

Hallander has had an extremely on-again, off-again relationship with the Penguins over his playing career. The Penguins took him in the second round, 58th overall, back in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft.

He stayed in his native Sweden for years after his draft, and did play a single game within the Penguins organization until the 2021-22 season. But by the time he came over to North America, the Penguins organization had already traded him away — and then traded back for him.

Hallander was one of many pieces involved in the 2020 Kasperi Kapanen deal. Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford sent him, Evan Rodrigues (a pending free agent who signed right back in Pittsburgh), veteran AHL/depth defenseman David Warsofsky, and the 15th overall pick in the 2020 draft to Toronto in exchange for Kapanen and a few depth pieces that the Penguins never used.

Hallander spent one season as a member of the Maple Leafs organization, but spent the entire year in Sweden, putting up 24 points in 51 games with Luleå HF of the SHL.

That summer, with the Seattle Expansion Draft looming, the Penguins had several players at risk of being taken by the Kraken. In a move I still do not understand, new general manager Ron Hextall opted to leave both forwards Brandon Tanev and Jared McCann off their protected list.

To prevent possibly losing McCann for nothing, Hextall traded him to Toronto, where he got Hallander back in the Penguins organization and a seventh round pick in 2023. McCann was used by the Maple Leafs as insurance against anyone else who Toronto had to expose, and since being taken by Seattle, McCann has averaged over 60 points a season with the Kraken.

But back to Hallander.

During the 2021-22 season, Hallander was assigned to Pittsburgh American Hockey League affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Hallander recorded 28 points in 61 AHL games that season. It was rather discouraging AHL production, but the Penguins did give him a brief promotion at the end of the year. He made his NHL debut on April 7th, 2022, playing under six minutes in a 3-0 loss to the New York Rangers.

The following year, Hallander was able to heavily improve his AHL numbers. Though he only played in 43 games, he recorded 33 points — an increase from 0.46 points per game the year prior to just about 0.77 in 2022-23.

He got into two games in Pittsburgh in November, averaging just a hair under ten minutes a night with the Penguins and registering no points.

At the end of the season, Hallander was a restricted free agent and opted to head back to Sweden, signing a contract with the SHL’s Timrå IK, where he has been ever since.

Last year, Hallander set a new career high with 36 points in 51 games in the SHL. This year, he blew that total out of the water, putting up his first 50+ point pro season with Timrå IK, racking up 53 points (including 26 goals) in 51 games. One blemish on his 2024-25 SHL season, though, was his no points in six playoff games.

Now, current general manager Kyle Dubas has brought Hallander back to Pittsburgh. He’s done a whole lot of traveling for someone who is only 24 years old.

Three different Penguins general managers have sought to bring this guy in, so clearly there is something to his game that attracts clubs to him. Hallander coming off of a career year in Sweden does bump his stock a little bit and gives him some juice going into next season, but this move seems first and foremost like a signing to help the AHL depth.

After all, the WBS Penguins could lose a decent chunk of their roster next season. Aside from any free agency departures, prospect forwards like Rutger McGroarty, Ville Koivunen, and Vasily Ponomarev should all push for full-time NHL jobs next season. Players like Tristan Broz, Avery Hayes, and Valtteri Puustinen also have outside chances at cracking the NHL roster next year.

If Hallander can put up the kind of production that he did in the SHL, he has a real chance to get another shot at an NHL job. But with a lot of other competition, particularly at forward, it is surely an uphill climb for him.

It is cool to see him back though, and he will be an interesting underlying storyline heading into the season.