The Filips are jumping ship and heading back home. Both Filip Hallander and Filip Lindberg have signed contracts in Europe and will not be playing for the Penguins or the Baby Penguins.
In Hallander’s case he has a two-year old son and wanted to go back home closer to family. The Penguins haven’t really gone out of their way to give him a look so he is going to go back to his support systems.
Hallander was a two-time Penguin. He was originally drafted by the Penguins 58th overall in 2018 and moved to the Maple Leafs in the Kasperi Kapanen trade. He then returned as a throw-in to the Jared McCann trade. He’s played a total of three NHL games with the Penguins. His offensive numbers in juniors and the AHL never suggested he would make a big impact at the NHL level. Doesn’t mean he couldn’t have played a low impact role on the 4th line for cheap. He had 33 points in 44 games for WB/S last year.
A Filip I had higher hopes for is allegedly on the move across the Atlantic. Per a Finnish newspaper Filip Lindberg has signed in Finland and thus leaving the organization.
A translation:
Next season, TPS is counting on the goalkeeper skills from Espoo. According to the information obtained by Iltalehti, the team made a contract with Filip Lindberg.
The 24-year-old Lindberg has played the last two seasons for the Pittsburgh Penguins farm team Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL series.
Turku is not a new place for Lindberg, as he played in TUTO's A-juniors in the 2017–18 season. He played a total of 48 matches in the first series and the lower secondary series. Lindberg became the goalkeeper who played the most matches ever in the A-Youth SM League in one season.
Lindberg had been plagued by unfortunate injuries and never gained traction as a professional. He was limited to 27 games in the last two seasons in WB/S. His save percentage was a pedestrian .896 last year. He was lights out as the UMASS starting goaltender winning a national championship. He had a .949 his last year with the program. Goalies prospects are tough to peg and I thought the Penguins were smart to sign him. I wish we would have seen a healthy version of Lindberg. For a team with a lot of goaltending issues at the moment it would have been pretty awesome to have a 24-year-old up and coming goaltender in the program. Unfortunately, it looks like it isn’t to be.
Thanks for reading!
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