{"id":927676,"date":"2026-10-10T10:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T10:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/927676\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T10:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T10:54:18","slug":"oilers-notebook-healthy-hallander-eager-to-make-most-of-fresh-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/927676\/","title":{"rendered":"Oilers Notebook: Healthy Hallander eager to make most of fresh start"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2014 \u00a0Filip Hallander<\/a> (pronounced HAUL-and-er) hails from Sundsvall, Sweden, the gulf town of roughly 75,000 that gave the hockey world such names as Henrik Zetterberg, Fredrik Modin and Vancouver centreman Elias Pettersson.<\/p>\n

Hallander arrived at Edmonton Oilers<\/a> practice and skated on a regular line Friday, looking forward to a new start in a new town with a new team.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat team, great players, great city, great fans,\u201d the 26-year-old said of Edmonton, after a spirited practice on the left side of centre Jason Dickinson and Kasperi Kapanen. \u201cIt\u2019s the whole package, coming to a team that wants to win. (He is) just happy about the chance to be part of this group.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are injuries, but then there are circumstances like what Hallander went through last season. He played 13 games for the Penguins, took a puck in the leg, and doctors found a blood clot. They shut him down for the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a tough year, but a good year too,\u201d he said. \u201cI was able to do everything except contact on the ice. So it was like an off-season for 11 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came back stronger, both mentally and physically. You get a lot of resilience going through something like that, and have a bigger appreciation for the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oilers fans should be realistic about this trade. GM Stan Bowman traded an eighth defenceman (Spencer Stastney) that he was going to put on waivers, and brought in Hallander, who was headed for waivers in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, all of Bowman\u2019s best trades have been the smaller ones. Think Vasily Podkolzin for a fourth-round pick from Vancouver, and perhaps the Hallander trade could work out better than first thought.<\/p>\n

Why has his career not really taken a step yet?<\/p>\n

\u201cNot being healthy enough, that’s like the main part. I haven’t played,\u201d Hallander said. \u201cThe games I have played, I’ve shown I can chip in on offence. But truly, I just want to be good defensively, a PK guy, and hopefully be reliable in both ends. I want to be as versatile as you can be. Like, put me anywhere in the lineup, and I’ll do the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zach Hyman<\/a> does not appear ready to play Saturday in San Jose, despite practising with the team Friday. Hallander, however, skated on a line that looks like it could remain intact.<\/p>\n

Tristan Jarry gets the start in goal, but we are doubting that Shakir Mukhamadullin gets the start against his former team. On San Jose\u2019s side, Macklin Celebrini is veeery close to playing \u2014 “There’s always a chance,” he said \u2014 but is said to be a game-time decision.<\/p>\n

Here is how Edmonton set up at Friday\u2019s practice:<\/p>\n

Podkolzin-McDavid-Draisaitl
Hallander-Dickinson-Kapanen\/Hyman
Formenton-Michaels-Joseph
Frederic\/Jones-Samanski-Howard\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ekholm-Bouchard
Shea-Murphy
Walman-Emberson<\/p>\n

The more time we spend around Mike Babcock, the more insight we get into his approach to the job in Edmonton.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just another team he\u2019s taking over here. Some club that\u2019s played poorly, got its coach fired, and needs to become a playoff team so ownership can make some money and the team can become relevant again. This is a Stanley Cup-calibre team \u2014\u00a0with the greatest player in the game on a two-year contract \u2014\u00a0that Babcock is trying to overhaul on the fly.<\/p>\n

So, you can\u2019t freak out when the penalty kill gives up a couple of goals, and he won\u2019t get too cocky over two straight games without allowing an even-strength goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet’s be fair,\u201d opened Babcock after practice. \u201cIn the first period (in Anaheim), they could have got a bunch, and we got good goaltending. We weren’t very good.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to think the direction we’re going, we’re going to be hard to score against. But right now we still make lots of mistakes, and we expect to. We’d rather make mistakes out of aggression than sitting back.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not ideal to get stomped in Period 1 the way the Oilers did in Anaheim, with a Ducks power play that looked like the Harlem Globetrotters against your penalty killers. But when you win the final 40 minutes and walk out the building with a 5-2 win, the lessons are more easily learned.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn hindsight, if you could have drawn it up and you knew (the comeback) was going to happen, it’s great. But normally, when you give the other team a cushion, you’re never coming back in this league,\u201d Babcock said. \u201cI really liked our pushback. (The second period in Anaheim) was our best forechecking period of the year. We played heavy hockey instead of rush hockey, and in the end, we took that period over.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t quit on yourself or the new plan when all the new plans don\u2019t work right away. We\u2019re only four games in here, remember.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you’re trying to play the way we are, you make mistakes,\u201d Babcock said. \u201cThen everyone goes to the system. \u2018Whoa, does this system work?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cLet’s just continue to be aggressive. Let’s do things right, and those will all go away. But if you start second-guessing, and everyone’s questioning, and we stand still, it goes in your net all \u2026 year \u2026 long. So it might take us some time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2014 \u00a0Filip Hallander (pronounced HAUL-and-er) hails from Sundsvall, Sweden, the gulf town of roughly 75,000 that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":927677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,82],"class_list":["post-927676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=927676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/927677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}