The Penguins have offered former Penguins forward Filip Hallander a two-year NHL contract, the Swedish outlet Expressen reported on Wednesday.

Hallander, 24, was the Penguins' 2018 second-round pick. He was traded to the Maple Leafs in the deal that brought Kasperi Kapanen back to the Penguins' organization in 2020, and then the Penguins re-acquired Hallander in 2021 in the trade that sent Jared McCann to Toronto ahead of the Seattle expansion draft. Hallander moved to North America the following season and spent two seasons with the Penguins, primarily in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He scored 25 goals and 36 assists in 104 total AHL games and was scoreless in three NHL games.

Hallander was a restricted free agent in 2023, and the Penguins extended a qualifying offer to retain his North American rights until he turns 27, but Hallander returned to Sweden. He signed for five years with his hometown club Timra, citing being closer to family after he and his wife welcomed their first child. His first year back in Sweden went well. He led his team in scoring with 14 goals and 22 assists in 51 games. This season, Hallander has picked up the pace and ranks third in scoring in the entire SHL with 12 goals and 15 assists in 24 games.

Hallander can't get out of his current contract and accept an offer from the Penguins until the offseason, though he and the Penguins are allowed to come to a verbal agreement. Expressen said Hallander, his agent, and Timra's sports manager declined to comment on the matter but reported that Timra is planning as if Hallander will be gone next season, and Hallander is preparing to make the move.

Solely to illustrate a point, I made this one (almost) about Marc Johnstone ...

Wilkes-Barre's injured list grew Wednesday to 10: Defensemen Jack St. Ivany (week-to-week, upper-body), Sebastian Aho (lower-body, no timetable), Scooter Brickey (lower-body, week-to-week), Mac Hollowell (no specifics), Filip Kral (no specifics), Nikolai Knyzhov (lower-body, no timetable), forwards Raivis Ansons (upper-body, day-to-day), Emil Bemstrom (upper-body, day-to-day), Jimmy Huntington (lower-body, longer-term) and Avery Hayes (no specifics).

Forward Boris Katchouk's four goals Wednesday were the difference in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's 6-4 win over the Charlotte Checkers at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Wilkes-Barre was outshot 15-6 in the opening period, but carried a 1-0 lead into first intermission after Katchouk's penalty-shot goal. Wilkes-Barre was again outshot 15-6 in the second period, and trailed 2-1 after Charlotte scored a power-play and an even-strength goal.

Tristan Broz tied the game in the third period with his eighth goal of the year, and then Katchouk scored to put the Penguins up 3-2. Boko Imama made it 4-2 with his second goal of the year, and then Katchouk scored on the power play to make it 5-2. The Checkers got a pair of late goals 1:29 apart, and then Katchouk scored into the empty net -- his fourth goal of the game, and 11th of the season. With goals on a penalty shot, power play, even strength and into the empty net, he was a shorthanded goal away from the full five goals, five ways cycle. Katchouk only had four shots on goal in the game, and scored on every one of them. He had never had a professional hat trick before Wednesday.

Katchouk, 26, is a former 2016 second-round pick of the Lightning. He's in his seventh professional season, but his first without an NHL contract. The Penguins signed Katchouk to a one-year AHL deal in October. His 15 points (11 goals, 4 assists) in 19 games are tied for the second-most on the team.

Joel Blomqvist took the win with 38 saves on 42 shots. Imama fought Charlotte's Trevor Carrick in the second period, coming an assist shy of a Gordie Howe Hat Trick. 

Compared to where it stood last year, the Penguins' power play has showed improvement through the first 30 games of the season: They have the ninth-most power play goals (19) in the NHL and rank eighth in power-play goal differential as they've only allowed one short-handed goal. A year ago, the power play ranked 28th and led the league-lead in short-handed goals allowed, this while averaging the seventh-most time on ice. 

Mike Sullivan was asked about that Wednesday and replied, "I think they’ve made a significant difference and what I like about them is they are scoring goals and we’re not giving up any, quite honestly. That’s the difference. So, for me the biggest thing is in the process and how they are going about it. The players that have been on it, have been doing a good job. It’s been a little bit of a mixed bag, we’ve had our moments when we’ve been really good and we’ve had our moments when it’s been a bit of a struggle."

Sullivan said that success stems from having better entries into the zone while also buying into the game plan that David Quinn has put in place.

"When I look at the body of work of the group of players, regardless of what those combinations look like, their entries have been much better, we went from one of the bottom teams in the league in entries to around 10th or 11th, and that gives us a chance. If you win faceoffs and have successful entries, you've got a chance to establish zone time and it gives them an opportunity to act on their instincts and do what they do best. Then it’s just a matter of executing night in and night out."

It's no secret that Drew O'Connor has struggled this season, not having scored since Oct. 18 and, in the 24 games since, producing only five assists.

Mike Sullivan was asked Wednesday after practice what can be done to help O'Connor.

"It’s everything from knowing your faceoff responsibilities, win or lose, knowing what your responsibilities are on the forecheck, getting to the net-front when we have possession, simplifying the game, shooting the puck, trying to get inside the dots, things of that nature," Sullivan replied. "When you play the game the right way, the byproduct is, you’ll find a way to create offense. So, if players simply focus on -- and it’s human nature -- if you just dwell on the fact that you haven’t scored, the conversation you have with yourself is ‘I gotta score, I gotta score, I gotta score,’ and it makes it harder to score. So that’s really the conversation, the advice and the suggestions that we are giving OC, right now."

Sullivan doesn't think O'Connor's necessarily struggling overall.

"Would we like him to find the back of the net a little bit more? Sure," Sullivan said. "But he's a big part of our penalty-kill, he's a great puck pursuit guy, he's willing to block shots, he's a sound consciousness player defensively, so there's other aspects of the game where he's helping us."