Edmonton Oilers general manager Stan Bowman said they were interested in Filip Hallander a couple years ago before they acquired the Pittsburgh Penguins forward on Wednesday morning.

Bowman held a short media conference following the trade that shipped Spencer Stastney out to the Eastern Conference. It’s been no secret that there’s been a logjam of defencemen on the roster with eight different blueliners, and Stastney was the odd man out, especially with the number of injuries to forwards.

“Our lineup seems to be in flux quite a bit, so we’re down pretty short up front,” said Bowman. “Luckily they’re not long-term injuries, but we were looking to try to find a match of trading a defenseman to add a forward. 

“Filip is a player we were looking at a couple years ago, actually when he was in Sweden before he came over. We weren’t sure if Pittsburgh was going to bring him over, if they were going to maybe trade him. But they were excited about him, so they brought him over, and then he had a good start to last season, and they missed the year with the blood clot. So we’ve been interested in his game for a while. 

“He played a really offensive style when he was in Sweden. I think it’s good to see that he’s got that ability to make plays. But in addition, we like the fact that he’s a worker and he competes. He plays at a high pace. I think he’s going to fit in well with the way that Mike wants our players to play. So he’s got a really nice combination of assets that I think will fit in well with our group.”

Hallander has started this season well, scoring one goal and three points in just two games. The 2018 second-round pick was part of his own logjam of forwards in Pittsburgh, but battled back from a blood clot injury that kept him limited to just 13 games last season.

Bowman says Hallander will not play tonight, but will join the team on this road trip and should practice for the first time on Friday in San Jose.

Stastney signed a one-year, $1.525 million contract in the offseason, so the Oilers get cap savings with Hallander’s $775,000 cap hit. Bowman said their intel around the league led them to believe that Stastney would not clear waivers.

The expectation is for Jason Dickinson to return to the lineup tonight, meaning the Oilers would need to make a roster move later today, according to Bowman.

Michael Menzies is an Oilersnation columnist and co-host of Pregaming and Postgaming. He’s also been the play-by-play voice of the Bonnyville Pontiacs in the AJHL since 2019. With seven years of news experience as the Editor-at-Large of Lakeland Connect in Bonnyville, Menzies collects vinyl, books, and stomach issues. Follow him on X at Menzies_4.

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