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Filip Larsson

Penguins Sign Filip Larsson To Two-Year Deal

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have announced another signing today as they’ve inked goaltender Filip Larsson to a two-year contract that will run through the 2025-26 season and carry an average annual value of $775K in the NHL. The 25-year-old Larsson spent last season with Leksands IF of the Swedish Hockey League where he posted a 19-9-0 record with a 1.93 goals against average and .920 save percentage.

Larsson’s two-year, two-way deal will breakdown as follows (via CapFriendly):

  • 2024-25 – $775k / $400k
  • 2025-26 – $775k / $500k

Larsson was selected in the sixth round (167th overall) by Detroit in the 2016 NHL entry draft and played a year in the NCAA at the University of Denver, posting a 13-6-3 record during the 2018-19 season.

He never played an NHL game while in the Red Wings organization but did play seven AHL games with the Grand Rapids Griffins in the 2019-20 season posting poor results with a 2-5 record along with an .843 save percentage and a 4.01 goals-against average.

After a stop in the ECHL, Larsson went home to Sweden where he spent the past four seasons split between the SHL and HockeyAllsvenskan. In the last three seasons, Larsson has posted some incredible numbers in Sweden, twice topping a .920 save percentage. It will be interesting to see if he can duplicate some of that success on North American ice.

Larsson’s signing creates more intrigue in the Penguins crease as it is possible there could be significant movement in Pittsburgh’s net after starter Tristan Jarry didn’t start in the Penguins’ final 13 games after backup Alex Nedeljkovic nearly led the team to an improbable spot in the NHL playoffs. Nedeljkovic is an unrestricted free agent on July 1st and many in Pittsburgh feel that he might have priced himself out of town with his strong finish to the season. The Penguins also have 22-year-old Joel Blomqvist who appears ready to challenge for an NHL spot next season as a backup. Larsson’s addition adds another option for the Penguins this summer as they look to get back into the playoffs next year.

Snapshots: Larsson, Yurov, Oshie

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Swedish goaltender Filip Larsson has announced he is leaving the SHL’s Leksands IF to pursue an NHL contract, as reported by the team (Twitter link). Larsson just wrapped up his first full season in the SHL, posting an admirable 19 wins and .920 save percentage through 28 regular season games. It was tied for the highest save percentage in the SHL among goalies with 20 or more starts, alongside veteran Lars Johansson, who posted a .920 in 40 games.

Larsson, 25, was formerly a Detroit Red Wings draft pick, hearing his name called in the sixth round of the 2016 NHL Draft. He came over to America in the subsequent season, playing one year with the USHL’s Tri-City Storm before moving to the University of Denver for a year. He posted strong stats through both juniors and college, posting a .941 and .932 save percentage in the respective seasons. However, his strong performances fell flat when Larsson turned pro in the 2019-20 season. He spent the bulk of the year as a backup searching through starts in the AHL and ECHL – ultimately posting a .843 in seven AHL games and a .910 in 10 ECHL games.

Larsson moved back to Sweden for the 2020-21 COVID season and has since climbed the ranks through Sweden’s second-tier league, the HockeyAllsvenskan. He recorded 30 wins and a .918 save percentage across three seasons and 60 games in the league. Those appearances, and one spot start in the SHL, were all Larsson had to go on when he took on Leksands’ starting role this year. And he still performed well, even adding a .929 save percentage through five postseason appearances. Rather than settle down too much, Larsson is now trying to seize that momentum and make a return to North American pros. While his track in North America could’ve been better, Larsson has shown exactly what he’s capable of with dominant years throughout Swedish hockey. He’ll undoubtedly be a free agent to follow, with so many NHL teams vying for new and impactful goaltending.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Top Minnesota Wild prospect Danila Yurov is reportedly set to sign a one-year extension in the KHL as soon as tomorrow, per Michael Russo of The Athletic (Twitter link). This news comes after Yurov completed his championship run with Magnitogorsk Metallurg. He led the team in regular season scoring, with 21 goals and 49 points in 62 games, and added nine points in 23 playoff games. Minnesota drafted Yurov as the 24th overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, and they will now have to wait one more year to bring him to North America.
  • It was revealed after their Game 4 loss that Washington Capitals forward T.J. Oshie played through the elimination game with a broken hand, shares The Hockey News’ Sammi Silber (Twitter link). It was linemate Dylan Strome who revealed Oshie’s injury while praising him for being such a great teammate. Strome added that fans don’t know the full extent of things Oshie has to do to prepare for a game, which certainly makes sense after the veteran forward suffered a seemingly endless string of injuries this year. He was limited to just 52 games this season, scoring 12 goals and 25 points. He has one year left on his deal, but after reaching 1,000 games and battling through injuries, there’s a chance the 37-year-old Oshie could bring his career to a close. On that idea, Strome says, “If it is his last game, he’s a hell of a warrior, hell of a guy. Everything you can ask for in a teammate.”

Minor Transactions: 7/2/22

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As the signings around the NHL start to pick up with free agency fast approaching, there have been some other minor moves around the hockey world as well.  Here is a rundown of some of the recent ones.

  • Flames prospect Cole Huckins was traded from Acadie-Bathurst to Sherbrooke in exchange for a second-round pick as the QMJHL trade window opened up on Saturday. The 19-year-old was a third-round pick by Calgary last year (77th overall) and had a dozen goals and 14 assists in 41 games with the Titan this past season while adding four points in eight playoff contests.  Huckins has yet to sign his entry-level deal and will need a big season with the Phoenix in 2022-23 to help secure his first contract.
  • Pending Red Wings RFA goaltender Filip Larsson is staying in Sweden as Kristianstad of the second-tier Allsvenskan announced that they’ve signed the netminder to a one-year deal. The 23-year-old spent the majority of his three-year, entry-level contract playing overseas as he wound up suiting up just seven times for Detroit’s AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids back in 2019-20.  Larsson split this past season between Frederikshavn in Denmark and Almtuna in Sweden.
  • Former NHL winger Luke Adam has decided to stay overseas as Straubing of the DEL in Germany announced they’ve signed the 32-year-old. Adam previously played in 90 NHL games over parts of five seasons and his journey in Germany will continue next year as Straubing will be his fifth different team in as many years.

Expansion Primer: Detroit Red Wings

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Over the next few weeks, we will be breaking down each team’s situation as it pertains to the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft. Which players are eligible, who will likely warrant protection, and which ones may be on the block to avoid the risk of losing them for nothing? Each team is required to submit their protection lists by 4:00 PM CDT on July 17th. The full eligibility rules can be found here, while CapFriendly has an expansion tool to make your own lists.

The last time we gathered here to determine the Detroit Red Wings’ expansion draft considerations, the team was in a steep downward decline. Yet they still ended up losing a bit of a diamond in the rough, as the Vegas Golden Knights selected forward Tomas Nosek. Nosek’s been a contributor in a bottom-six role every season in Vegas’ history, robbing Detroit of some quality depth. Now, with Detroit having hit the rock-bottom of their rebuild, their expansion situation looks fairly clear-cut this time around. With a lot of young talent exempt (and no Jimmy Howard/Petr Mrazek goalie controversy), the Red Wings and general manager Steve Yzerman are in a good position coming into 2021’s Seattle expansion draft.

Eligible Players (Non-UFA)

Forwards:
Riley Barber, Tyler Bertuzzi, Adam Erne, Robby Fabbri, Dylan Larkin, Frans Nielsen, Richard Panik, Vladislav Namestnikov, Michael Rasmussen, Givani Smith, Evgeny Svechnikov, Hayden Verbeek, Jakub Vrana

Defense:
Dennis Cholowski, Danny DeKeyser, Christian Djoos, Filip Hronek, Gustav Lindstrom, Troy Stecher

Goalies:
Kaden Fulcher, Thomas Greiss

Notable Unrestricted Free Agents

F Valtteri Filppula, F Sam Gagner, F Luke Glendening, F Darren Helm, F Bobby Ryan, D Alex Biega, D Marc Staal, G Jonathan Bernier

Notable Exemptions

F Joseph Veleno, F Filip Zadina, D Jared McIsaac, D Moritz Seider, G Filip Larsson

Key Decisions

The key decisions start with Detroit’s young forward group. They’ll undoubtedly be going with the seven forwards/three defensemen protection scheme. Four of those forward spots are relatively clear-cut, with Larkin, Bertuzzi, Fabbri, and recent acquisition Vrana being protection locks. That leaves three spots remaining, but with a mix of four veterans and young forwards competing for them.

The veteran of those candidates is Namestnikov. Signed to a two-year, $4MM deal prior to 2020-21 to provide some veteran presence during their rebuild, Namestnikov had his worst offensive season to date with just 17 points in 53 games. His defensive metrics were mediocre, which is on-brand for the versatile Russian forward. Detroit was Namestnikov’s fourth team since the beginning of 2019-20, and if left unprotected, Seattle could be his fifth.

However, there’s a trio of three younger forwards who could also vie for those spots. Erne, Rasmussen, and Svechnikov all looked good with the Wings this season. It was an especially important season for Svechnikov, who’s struggled with frequent injuries. He rebounded this year for eight points in 21 games while posting incredibly impressive possession metrics. Erne had a nice rebound season after a ghastly 2019-20 performance, scoring 11 goals and 20 points in 45 games. While his 15.5% shooting rate doesn’t scream sustainability, the 26-year-old showed nice flashes this season. There’s also Rasmussen, who’s still a developing project despite already playing in over 100 NHL contests. Drafted ninth overall in 2017, Rasmussen’s now totalled 30 points in 102 NHL games, including 12 points in 40 games last season. He’s consistently posted decent possession results, suggesting that the goal-scoring touch he had in juniors could be coming.

Detroit faces a similar quandary on defense with three names fighting for two spots. Hronek’s protection is a foregone conclusion, but Stecher, Cholowski, and Lindstrom are names that could fall into those last two spots.

Stecher sits as effectively a more impressive Namestnikov. Joining Detroit as a free agent prior to this season, Stecher settled nicely into a top-four role, posting admirable defensive metrics considering the hacked-together situation that was Detroit’s defense. However, like Namestnikov, he’s under contract for just one more season and there’s no guarantee that he stays. There’s also a pair of younger defenders in Cholowski and Lindstrom. Cholowski was a first-round pick in 2016 and showed great potential in his 2018-19 rookie season, but has stagnated at all levels since then. Detroit is willing to play the wait-and-see game with the young defender, who may see a full-time role again next year after just 16 games played in 2020-21. Lindstrom’s a year younger and doesn’t have as much upside, but he’s cobbled together four assists in 29 NHL games and could have third-pairing potential.

Projected Protection List

F Tyler Bertuzzi
F Adam Erne
F Robby Fabbri
F Dylan Larkin
F Michael Rasmussen
F Evgeny Svechnikov
F Jakub Vrana

D Dennis Cholowski
D Filip Hronek
D Troy Stecher

G Thomas Greiss

Skater Exposure Requirement Checklist

When Vegas had their expansion draft, a minimum of two forwards and one defenseman had to be exposed that were under contract and played either 40 games in the most recent season or 70 over the past two combined.  Due to the pandemic, those thresholds have been changed to 27 games played in 2020-21 or 54 in 2019/20 and 2020-21 combined.  In creating our expansion list for each team in this series, we will ensure that these criteria are met.

Forwards (3): Vladislav Namestnikov, Frans Nielsen, Richard Panik
Defensemen (1): Danny DeKeyser

There are very few pickings here that the Kraken would be interested in, and Detroit is likely to emerge from the expansion draft unscathed. While Detroit will have some depth forwards exposed, Seattle can likely find cheaper and better options elsewhere. Seattle could end up taking an AHL skater with limited upside like Lindstrom or Smith, or take a pending UFA like Glendening if they really don’t like any of their options.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.  Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.

Red Wings Loan Filip Larsson To Sweden

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Filip Larsson’s international hockey journey will continue for another year.  HV71 of Sweden’s Allsvenskan announced that they’ve added the goaltender on loan from the Red Wings for the 2021-22 season and have signed him to a one-year contract.

This season, the 22-year-old started on a loan to Almtuna in Sweden’s second-tier league before transferring to Frederikshavn in Denmark in January.  His numbers in both leagues weren’t particularly strong as he managed just a .883 SV% in Sweden and a .889 mark in Denmark, numbers that don’t inspire much confidence in his NHL potential.

Larsson was a sixth-round pick of Detroit back in 2016 (167th overall) out of Djurgarden’s junior system in Sweden.  He came to North America in 2017, spending one year in the USHL before moving to the NCAA level with Denver the following season.  Somewhat surprisingly, he left the school after just his freshman year to sign with the Red Wings, a decision that looks like a mistake in hindsight.  He struggled in his lone season in their system in 2019-20 which was split between the AHL and ECHL, helping to prompt the loans for this year.

Larsson is entering the final year of his entry-level contract in 2021-22 and the fact that he has been loaned back home already coupled with his recent struggles suggests that it’s quite unlikely that Detroit will be tendering him a qualifying offer in 2022.

Red Wings Loan Filip Larsson To Denmark

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Red Wings goaltending prospect Filip Larsson won’t be coming back to North America after all.  After being loaned to Almtuna in Sweden to start the season, he was expected to come back and battle for playing time in the AHL with Grand Rapids.  That isn’t the plan anymore, as the Metal Ligaen in Denmark announced that Detroit has loaned the netminder to Frederikshavn for the remainder of the season.

The 22-year-old played in six games in the Allsvenskan this season, posting a 3.54 GAA along with a .883 SV%, numbers that weren’t going to give him any momentum heading into AHL training camp.  And after splitting last season between Grand Rapids and ECHL Toledo, it certainly looks as if he would have been the odd one out, especially with six other goalies under contract.

Viewed as a potential higher-end prospect after a dominant freshman season with Denver of the NCAA in 2018-19, things haven’t gone as well for Larsson since then.  But at his age, playing time is critical and he will have to head over to Denmark to get a chance for more game action.  He’s expected to report to his new team early next week.

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