The Pittsburgh Penguins placed rookie forward Filip Hallander on injured reserve Saturday after announcing a day earlier he has been diagnosed with a blood clot in his leg and will miss a minimum of three months.

Hallander, 25, will remain in Pittsburgh and rehabilitate with the Penguins’ medical team and UPMC staff, the team announced.

“It’s terrible. At the same time, though, when something like this comes up, this goes way beyond hockey. This is about the person,” Penguins head coach Dan Muse said on Friday. “And I think we’re all very thankful and grateful that the medical staff here was able to figure this out as quickly as they did, and now, they can start to do everything they need to just to get him back on track and take care of him.”

Hallander last played on Monday in a 4-3 loss at Toronto. He has four points (one goal, three assists), a plus-4 rating, two penalty minutes, five blocks, three hits and a career-high 13:09 average time on the ice in 13 games. He played on the top forward line with Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust in a few games.

Pittsburgh selected Hallander, a native of Sweden, in the second round of the 2018 NHL Draft. The Penguins are scheduled to play two games in Stockholm, Sweden against the Nashville Predators on Nov. 14 and 16 in the NHL Global Series.

Hallander also played one game in the 2021-22 season and two games in the 2022-23 campaign. He returned home to Sweden for off-ice reasons to support his young family, the Penguins said. After playing the last two seasons with Timra of the Swedish Hockey League, he decided to return to Pittsburgh for a reported two-year, $1.55 million contract.

–Field Level Media