You’ll have to pardon my witty title here, but there really isn’t much more to say about the impact Egor Zamula made after arriving in Columbus this season.
Zamula had an eventful couple of weeks right around the turn of the new year. After falling out of the lineup in Philadelphia, he was traded in what felt like a bottom‑of‑the‑news‑barrel minor‑league swap to Pittsburgh for Phillip Tomasino after clearing waivers.
The Penguins expected him to report to Wilkes‑Barre/Scranton… and then, right after the calendar flipped to 2026, word got out that he refused to report. Pittsburgh suspended him, and a few days later, they put him on unconditional waivers and terminated his contract. Suddenly, he was a free agent with a handful of reported suitors on January 6.
Don Waddell, who was very clearly hunting for a tall, physical, defense‑and‑puck‑movement type around that time (as we wrote here at U&B), wasted no time. He reached out to Zamula’s North American agent, Dan Milstein, and by that same evening, Zamula was signed for the rest of the season.
Zamula’s time in Union Blue, however, was short and, frankly, unremarkable. He played 20 games for the Blue Jackets, posting a 0‑2‑2 line in 12:27 per night with a +2. As the Jackets hit their late‑season skid, he found himself scratched or seeing his minutes slashed, and even when he did play, he wasn’t exactly a positive driver. His advanced metrics tell the same story that the eye test does.
Per Moneypuck, with his three main even‑strength partners—Dante Fabbro, Erik Gudbranson, and Ivan Provorov—the Jackets never cracked a 47.5% expected goals share.
The pairing with Provorov bottomed out at a brutal 34.9%. His relative expected goals percentage of ‑7.5% was the worst among CBJ defensemen not named Erik Gudbranson, and Gudbranson at least played his defense‑first role more effectively. Most notably, Zamula finished dead last among Jackets defensemen in expected high‑danger shot attempts against per 60 at 2.76, placing him in the bottom 50 of all NHL defensemen who logged at least 350 minutes.
For a guy brought in to manage the puck, eat minutes, and limit quality chances from opposing bottom‑six forwards, the numbers do not paint a flattering picture.
Zamula is a restricted free agent heading into the offseason, but I’d be shocked if the Blue Jackets qualify or extend him. By year’s end, he was either stapled to the bench or sitting in the press box for 50 minutes a night, and it’s not hard to imagine he was the source of some of Rick Bowness’ late‑season frustration.
It’ll at least be interesting to see whether he continues his career in North America or heads back to Russia to keep things going there.
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