Swedish center and left winger Filip Hållander is headed back to the NHL next season, according to Swedish media outlet Exprssen.

Hållander, who currently plays in the SHL with Timrå IK, played three NHL games between 2021 and 2023 for the Pittsburgh Penguins, who still own his NHL rights. According to Expressen, the Penguins, who appear headed towards a rebuild, are interested in giving the 24-year-old Swede another shot and a two-year contract is what’s being offered.

Hållander has 27 points in 24 SHL games this season, which ranks second on the Timrå team behind former San Jose Shark Jonathan Dahlén, who has 28.

“I do not comment on speculation during the current season,” was Hållander’s predictable response.

“I don’t comment on any player until the season is over,” echoed Timrå sports director Kimmo Kapanen.

“I have nothing to comment on right now about his negotiations or his future – the focus is fully on Timrå,” said Hållander’s agent Patrik Aronsson. “He belongs to Pittsburgh, they are the ones who have his rights right now and they look after all their players. He has a contract right now with Timrå and that is what matters.”

Hållander still has three more years on his contract, which expires in 2028, but it is common practise in Europe to include escape clauses on multi-year deals in the event the player receives an offer from an NHL team.

Timrå is Hållander’s childhood club and the one he turned pro with as a teenager, first in the HockeyAllsvenskan and then in the SHL. He was taken in the second round, 58th overall, by Pittsburgh in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. He was briefly property of the Toronto Maple Leafs, being traded there in 2020 and then back to Pittsburgh in 2021. 

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Hållander played two SHL seasons for Luleå before heading overseas at age 21. The majority of his time in North America was spent with the AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, with whom he had 65 points in 110 regular-season and playoff games. 

He then signed a five-year contract with Timrå in 2023.

Timrå is currently sixth in the SHL standings with 42 points in 25 games at the international break. The club has experienced NHLers Magnus Pääjärvi and Anton Lander but also four NHL prospects that are 21 or younger – most notably Oliver Kapanen, who was loaned to the club after a 12-game stint with the Montreal Canadiens to start the season. Others are Oliver Johansson (Ottawa Senators), Simon Forsmark (Carolina Hurricanes) and 18-year-old Vigo Gustafsson (Nashville Predators), who is on Sweden’s roster for the upcoming IIHF World Junior Championship.