Player: Elmer Söderblom
Born: July 5, 2001 (24 years old)
Height: 6’8”
Weight: 252 pounds
Hometown: Gothenburg, Sweden
Catches: Left
Draft: 2019, Detroit Red Wings (Sixth round, No. 159 overall)
2025-26 Statistics: 5 goals, 5 assists for 10 points in 20 regular-season games with the Penguins (1 goal in five playoff games)
Contract Status: Signed through 2026-27 at a $1.125 million cap hit, hits restricted free agency in 2027
Söderblom was traded from the Detroit Red Wings to the Penguins on March 6 in exchange for a third-round 2026 draft pick.
At the time of his deadline trade acquisition by the Penguins, Söderblom was averaging less than 11 minutes per night and shooting just 4.8 percent for the Red Wings. He had recorded two goals and one assists through 39 games that season prior to the trade.
Dubas emphasized at the time of the trade that the Penguins picked up Söderblom in part because of his size and age, and in part because his contract status would allow the Pens to develop him. Söderblom becomes an RFA at the expiration of his contract in 2027.
In the short term, Dubas said he wanted Söderblom to join the Penguins’ fourth line in helping driving the team’s forecheck.
“I think the things that have stood out [about] him throughout this year have been just really the forecheck. Get in on the forecheck, disrupt pucks, win pucks back,” Dubas said about Söderblom in March. “I think for us, that’s one thing that we’d identified as— we obviously have got the line of [Connor] Dewar, [Blake] Lizotte and [Noel Acciari] that do a really good job of that, but being able to add a little bit more of that throughout the lineup would be good.”
Söderblom made his Penguins debut on March 8. His best stretch of the season came when he started using his size to fill in what Dubas had been looking for on the Penguins’ forecheck, a late push that resulted in him recording eight points (four goals, four assists) over his last four games of the season.
He also scored the opening goal of the Penguins’ Game 5 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.
Regular season 5v5 advanced stats
Data via Natural Stat Trick. Ranking is out of 18 forwards on the team who qualified by playing a minimum of 150 minutes.
Corsi For%: 45.65 percent (17th)
Goals For%: 56 percent (7th)
xGF%: 1o.02 percent (16th)
Scoring Chance %: 48.24 percent (16th)
5v5 on-ice shooting%: 15.22 percent (1st)
On-ice save%: .886 (16th)
Goals/60: 1.33 (4th)
Assist/60: 1.33 (4th)
Points/60: 2.66 (3rd)
There’s a relatively small sample size here for Söderblom, who skated just 20 games with the Pens. In that stretch the Penguins overall struggled to limit opponents’ scoring chances, but were bolstered by Söderblom’s (likely unsustainable) 18.5 percent shooting rate.
Söderblom played his best hockey down the final stretch of his brief first stint with the Pens. Can he continue building on that in order to become a true bottom-six power forward in his first full season in Pittsburgh?
Also, who will Söderblom be skating with next season? He got most of his playing time during the regular season on the fourth line aside Acciari when Lizotte was injured, but Acciari is currently un-signed. If he does ink a new contract, the Penguins could run things back with the old fourth line and would need to find a new spot for Söderblom.
Söderblom continues developing as a skater and uses his size to help the Penguins on the forecheck and the second penalty kill unit.
Söderblom adds size to the lineup the Penguins didn’t have prior to his trade. That March deal could pay off for Dubas if the 24-year-old is able to keep contributing five goals every 20 games during his first full season with the Penguins.
It’s too small of a sample size to know for sure, but Söderblom is a young player with a contract team control for multiple more years who showed in his brief stint with Pittsburgh last season that he has the ability to be a positive addition to the Penguins’ bottom six.