The Columbus Blue Jackets quickly scooped up former Philadelphia Flyer Egor Zamula this afternoon, following his waiver for mutual contract termination with the Penguins, who traded for him last week.
Zamula refused to report to the Penguins' AHL affiliate, which led to this move and subsequent waiving. His agent, Dan Milstein, spoke about his reasons for doing so, but called it a "balanced, mature decision."
Egor immediately makes the third pairing for the Columbus Blue Jackets a better one. As I've been saying since the Jackets' OT loss to the Penguins over the weekend, the CBJ needed size and defensive help immediately to right the ship, and that's precisely what Zamula brings.
The Athletic's Chris Johnston and Josh Yohe describe him as "A smooth skater with good puck skills", but one who is still developing his offensive game at the NHL level. Regardless of his offensive upside, however, he immediately drew interest from other NHL clubs at a lower price than what he was due to earn with the Penguins.
He had his pick of around six or so clubs, per his agent, and he chose Columbus. Jackets General Manager and President of Hockey Operations Don Waddell also had some glowing words to describe Zamula.
"Egor is a mobile defenseman with good size who sees the ice well and can move the puck very efficiently. We are excited to have him join our hockey club."Don Waddell
Per Jeff Svoboda, he is expected to join the club tomorrow following tonight's matchup against the San Jose Sharks, and will join the CBJ as they continue their 4-game road trip.
Egor will likely take the place of struggling defenseman Jake Christiansen, who has unfortunately been putting up dreadful numbers for the Jackets following his elevation to the third pairing due to the injury of Brendan Smith.
Egor is a left shot, which would likely place him next to the also-struggling Dante Fabbro on that unit. I think this is a combination that could work out decently at even strength. Zamula plays to the strengths of his defense-first, puck-moving ability, alongside Fabbro's two-way game, which aided Dante in putting up 26 points and a +23 rating this past season.
Per PuckPedia, Zamula's deal is a simple pro-rated $1m for the remainder of the season. He will be an RFA at the end of this campaign. It'll be interesting to see if the 25-year-old Russian D-man could be a part of the future plans for the Union Blue, or if this is just an injury-focused stopgap measure heading down the road.