- Edmonton sent spare defenseman Spencer Stastney to Pittsburgh for a forward
- The Oilers finally made the lateral move they had been exploring with their forwards banged up
- Read below for the full trade details and what it means for both teams
The Oilers found their forward.
Edmonton traded defenseman Spencer Stastney to the Penguins on Wednesday morning in exchange for forward Filip Hallander. Both teams announced the deal.
See the Oilers’ announcement:
This is the exact kind of move Elliotte Friedman reported on Saturday Headlines last weekend. Friedman said Edmonton had explored a “lateral trade,” possibly a defenseman for a forward, to patch a group missing Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and several other forwards.
Stastney had become the odd man out on a crowded blue line. He made the opening-night roster but hadn’t dressed for a game yet this season.
Nashville sent the 26-year-old to Edmonton last season for a 2027 third-round pick. He set career highs with two goals and 10 points in 66 games between the two clubs, but things didn’t click after the trade. Stastney had one goal and a minus-10 in 36 games as an Oiler.
Pittsburgh wanted a lefty. Four of the six defensemen on the Penguins’ roster shoot right, and Stastney’s $1.525 million deal runs through the end of this season.
We had the swap from Pittsburgh’s side, with the Penguins landing the defenseman:
Hallander heads west off a nice little start. The Swedish forward had a goal and two assists with a plus-4 rating through two games with the Penguins.
That he’s playing at all is a win. A blood clot in his leg and a follow-up lung issue wiped out most of his 2025-26 season, and Hallander admitted this summer that he wondered if his hockey career was over.
His path has been a winding one. Pittsburgh drafted him in the second round in 2018, dealt him to Toronto in 2020 and got him back a year later, so this is the third trade of his career involving the Penguins. Hallander also spent two seasons in the SHL with Timra before coming back to North America.
He has two goals and seven points in 18 career NHL games, along with 62 points in 107 AHL games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
Edmonton saves some money too. Hallander carries an $850,000 cap hit in the final year of his deal, which clears $675,000 in space for the Oilers.
Next up for Edmonton is a Wednesday night visit to the Ducks, and the team hasn’t said yet whether Hallander will be in the lineup in Anaheim.
