Kylington suffered from severe mental health problems.
Oliver Kylington returns to the NHL after a long time. AOP / USA TODAY SPORTS
Swedish defender Oliver Kylington played his breakthrough season in the NHL in 2021–22.
At that time, Kylington scored 9+22=31 power points in 73 games in the shirt of the Calgary Flames. The Swede signed a contract extension with the Flames and received a significant salary increase.
Then he disappeared from the rinks for 20 months and hasn’t played a game in a season and a half. Last August, it was revealed that Kylington suffered from serious mental health problems.
On Thursday we heard wonderful news. With a couple of AHL games under his belt, Kylington is ready to return to the Flames lineup for tonight’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Kylington would play in a three-pack pair Jordan Oesterle with.
– It was hard to try to think that this was just an ordinary working day. There were moments when I thought I might never be here again. That got me emotional, Kylington told earlier this week as he practiced for the first time with his NHL team.
Problems in the family
Kylington opened up about the reasons for his absence of Hockeynews.se in an interview in the summer.
– These things are related to my family, and they have been troubling me for years. Now they got even worse.
– I felt shame because of the problems before I realized that I had to express my feelings and face the problems. I’m really thankful that I went through the process and got through them.
Kylington signed a two-year extension with the Flames just over a year ago. For one season he earns 2.5 million dollars.
He is a summer 2015 second round pick. A total of 168 NHL games have been accumulated.