Penguins Notebook: An Intriguing Addition; Showing Up for Shero

The Pittsburgh Penguins made what figures to be their most significant move of the offseason a few days ago, when they decided to “part ways” – as the team so diplomatically expressed it – with Mike Sullivan.

The early aftershocks of that were still rumbling through the hockey world when president of hockey operations/general manager Kyle Dubas made another that has the potential – and “potential” is the key term here – to have a meaningful impact long after Sullivan’s successor has been selected.

Perhaps even after the successor to Sullivan’s successor is in place.

While there are no guarantees, the decision to bring back versatile forward Filip Hallander, who has spent the past two seasons in Sweden, just might fill a noteworthy hole in their lineup.

Precisely how Hallander’s game has evolved during his time in the Swedish Hockey League won’t be evident until at least training camp, but he already was developing into a capable two-way forward when he left North America in 2023 because he was unhappy with his playing time in the NHL.

He added a major offensive dimension to his game during the 2023-24 season, putting up 26 goals and 27 assists in 51 games with Timra. That was good for second place in the league scoring race and broke the franchise record set by former Detroit forward Henrik Zetterberg.

Hallander, who will be 25 on June 29, can play center or left wing and, in a best-case scenario, could compete for a middle-six role with the Penguins.

Although neither Hallander nor the team appear to have grandiose expectations for him – at least not if his two-year contract that carries a salary-cap hit of $775,000, which is the league minimum, is any indication – his 200-foot game should be a plus for them.

Just how big of one it proves to be should be an interesting storyline to follow this fall.

Honoring Ray Shero

The Penguins, past and present, were well-represented at the funeral of former GM Ray Shero in suburban Boston Tuesday.

In addition to a number of current staffers, three NHL GMs who got their starts as assistants under Shero – Bill Guerin (Minnesota), Tom Fitzgerald (New Jersey) and Jason Botterill (Seattle) – were on hand.

So were former team officials including Ken Sawyer, Chuck Fletcher and Don Waddell, as well as ex-players such as Hal Gill and Craig Adams.

Pierre McGuire, a long-ago scout and assistant coach with the Penguins before he took on duties elsewhere in everything from coaching to broadcasting, also attended. He was one of Shero’s closest friends, dating to their days as teammates at St. Lawrence University.

Shero died April 9, a few months after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.

Showing their true colors

Hockey fans can be fiercely loyal, almost rabid sometimes, but they might be able to pick up a pointer or two about trolling opposing clubs and their followers from their counterparts in the English Premier League.

Consider that it is a common practice there for partisans of a particular club to set off flares in the preferred color of their team of choice to celebrate something it accomplishes.

Well, it had long been apparent that Liverpool — which is owned by Fenway Sports Group, which also owns the Penguins – would win the 2024-25 EPL championship, which is determined by regular-season results, not a playoff.

Long enough that some backers of Liverpool’s bitter crosstown rivals, Everton, were able to concoct and pull off an ingenious scheme to intrude on Liverpool’s raucous title celebration, which played out immediately before and after a 5-1 home victory over Tottenham Sunday.

Per reports from the other side of the Atlantic, some fans of Everton, whose team color is blue, purchased about 10,000 English pounds worth of blue flares, then spent weeks relabeling them as red, which is Liverpool’s color.

The Everton supporters sold the flares with altered labels to some unfortunate Liverpool fans, who tried to revel in their club’s triumph by adding to the clouds of red smoke that enveloped much of Anfield, Liverpool’s home pitch, and the area surrounding it, only to discover that they actually were sending up billows of blue.

So while, say, the tradition that throngs of Penguins fans rally on the steps of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington anytime their team wins a road game against the Capitals is pretty creative, one can only imagine how some innovative EPL supporters would mark such an occasion.