Penguins forward prospect Filip Hallander returned to game action on Dec. 28 for the first time since he fractured his foot on Sept. 17, his second game of the season.
Hallander, 19, is in his first season with Lulea in the Swedish Hockey League after his previous SHL club, Timra, was relegated to the second-tier Allsvenskan league last spring.
Since returning from injury, Hallander has recorded two assists in three games, bringing his season totals to three assists in five games.
"It feels f------ fun, of course," Hallander told HockeySverige.se this week in a Swedish interview. "It has gone better than expected, I think. I thought it would be a big difference when you were away for so long and that it might take a little longer to find back to the timing and all the small details out on the ice, but it worked well.
Hallander spoke more about the recovery process. He said that for the first six weeks since the fracture he was in a cast, but able to do some upper-body work in that time. His foot felt stiff after the cast was removed and that it still felt like he was wearing a ski boot. He had to work to regain mobility in the foot.
"In the beginning it was really tough, when it felt really bad," Hallander said in the Swedish interview. "You are so used to being able to walk as usual and then it suddenly becomes incredibly demanding to just take a walk."
The severity of the injury made it clear early on that Hallander would most likely miss the World Junior Championship, a tough blow in Hallander's final year of eligibility. But Hallander began skating about a week before the Swedish team was selected, and he began to believe that he still had a shot at making the team.
Hallander wasn't selected for the team, and didn't hear from Swedish head coach Thomas Monten at all since the week he was injured.
"I thought maybe I would get a call during the fall here or when they would pick out the team," he said. "It was the least I could really expect him to tell me that he wouldn't take me anyway."
"I understood that they did not want to take a chance on me and that they may have wanted to go on a little safer card, I do," Hallander continued. "But I think the communication has been bad. I am disappointed in that. How they make their choices about the squad and so on, I can't influence that. But I think it could have been handled in a much better way ... That's what it is."
While Hallander's experience with the national team due to his injury was a disappointing one, the injury did bring one positive: A new appreciation for the game.
"I long for every game I get to play now," he said. "It's a lovely feeling. It is probably the only positive thing about this injury, that I have had such an incredible hunger for hockey again and that I really sit and long to get out on the ice again."
Here’s how the rest of the Penguins’ prospects in juniors, college, and Europe did since the last time this feature ran on Dec. 18.
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FORWARDS
Judd Caulfield
Position: Forward
Size: 6-4/207
Shoots: Right
Drafted: 2019, fifth round
Team: North Dakota (NCAA)
Season totals: 16 games, 2 goals, 5 assists
Caulfield appeared in two games since North Dakota came back from winter break. He didn't record any points.
Liam Gorman
Position: Center
Size: 6-3/196
Shoots: Left
Drafted: 2018, sixth round
Team: Princeton (NCAA)
Season totals: 17 games, 3 assists
Gorman appeared in four games since Princeton's winter break ended, and was scoreless.
Filip Hallander
Position: Center/Wing
Size: 6-1/190
Shoots: Left
Drafted: 2018, second round
Team: Lulea HF (SHL)
Season totals: 5 games, 3 assist
Hallander fractured his foot in his second game of the season. He finally made his return on Dec. 28 and has skated in three games since then. He's recorded two assists since returning from injury.
Nathan Legare
Position: Right wing
Size: 6-0/205
Shoots: Right
Drafted: 2019, third round
Team: Baie-Comeau Drakkar (QMJHL)
Season totals: 36 games, 19 goals, 21 assists
Legare played in five games since returning from the break, scoring three goals and four assists.
Legare's name came up in a lot of QMJHL trade talks over the past few weeks, given that his Baie-Comeau Drakkar are looking to be moving toward a rebuilding phase. But the QMJHL's trade period closed on Monday, and Legare wasn't moved.
Linus Olund
Position: Center
Size: 5-11/183
Shoots: Left
Drafted: 2017, fifth round
Team: Brynas IF (SHL)
Season totals: 27 games, 1 goal, 5 assists
In Olund's last five games, he recorded one assist.
Nikita Pavlychev
Position: Center
Size: 6-8/225
Shoots: Left
Drafted: 2015, seventh round
Team: Penn State (NCAA)
Season totals: 14 games, 4 goal, 6 assists
Pavlychev skated in two games since the break, scoring two goals and an assist.
Penguins prospect Nikita Pavlychev's third goal of the season.pic.twitter.com/OQ5er1sCtN
— Taylor Haase (@TaylorHaasePGH) January 4, 2020
Samuel Poulin
Position: Wing
Size: 6-1/207
Shoots: Left
Drafted: 2019, first round
Team: Sherbrooke Phoenix (QMJHL)
Season totals: 25 games, 16 goals, 21 assists
Poulin remains out of Sherbrooke’s lineup with an upper-body injury. He last played on Nov. 30. Sherbrooke’s coach originally said Poulin wasn’t expected to be out of the lineup for more than a week, so Poulin’s already been out much longer than expected.
He didn’t record a single point in his last six games before being injured.
Valtteri Puustinen
Position: Wing
Size: 5-9/183
Shoots: Right
Drafted: 2019, seventh round
Team: HPK (Liiga)
Season totals: 34 games, 13 goals, 17 assists
In Puustinen's last six games, he scored two goals and six assists.
This video is in Finnish, but here you can watch Puustinen do some grocery shopping, if you're into that sort of thing. He's a Pepsi guy:
You can also see why his nickname in Finland is Phil Kessel. They definitely look a bit alike.
DEFENSEMEN
Calen Addison
Size: 5-10/180
Shoots: Right
Drafted: 2018, second round
Team: Lethbridge Hurricanes (WHL)
Season totals: 31 games, 7 goals, 22 assists
Addison won gold with Team Canada in the World Championship this week, scoring one goal and eight assists in seven games in the tournament. Three of his assists came in the gold medal game, a 4-3 win over Russia.
Santeri Airola
Size: 5-11/165
Shoots: Right
Drafted: 2019, seventh round
Team: SaiPa (Liiga), Kettera (Mestis)
Season totals: 2 games with SaiPa; 17 games, 6 assists with Kettera
In Airola's last five games with Kettera, he recorded one assist.
Ryan Jones
Size: 6-2/186
Shoots: Left
Drafted: 2016, fourth round
Team: Nebraska-Omaha (NCAA)
Season totals: 20 games, 2 goals, 5 assists
Jones recorded one assist in his last four games.
Antti Palojarvi
Size: 6-1/172
Shoots: Left
Drafted: 2017, sixth round
Team: Lukko (Liiga), Lukko U20 (Jr. A SM-liiga), Hokki (Mestis)
Season totals: 5 games with Lukko; 14 games, 3 assists with Lukko U20; 10 games with Hokki
Palojarvi played in one game with Hokki since the holiday break and was scoreless.
Clayton Phillips
Size: 5-11/183
Shoots: Left
Drafted: 2017, third round
Team: Penn State (NCAA)
Season totals: 21 games, 2 goal, 6 assists
Phillips played in two games since the holiday break and was scoreless.
William Reilly
Size: 6-2/196
Drafted: 2017, seventh round
Team: Rensselaer Polytech (NCAA)
Season totals: 19 games, 6 goal, 6 assists
Reilly played in three games since the break ended, scoring one goal and two assists.
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