Forward Yegor Chinakhov will finally have his trade request honored. According to TSN’s Pierre LeBrun, the Columbus Blue Jackets are trading Chinakhov for draft capital. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman later shared that Chinakhov is headed to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In exchange, Pittsburgh is sending Columbus winger Danton Heinen, the St. Louis Blues’ 2026 second-round pick, and the Washington Capitals’ 2027 third-round pick. The Blue Jackets confirmed the deal.
Chinakhov’s story in Columbus is well known up to this point. The 21st overall pick of the 2020 NHL Draft has been with the Blue Jackets for much of the last five years, though the relationship began souring last season after Columbus hired Dean Evason as the team’s head coach.
Before Evason’s hire, during the 2023-24 season, Chinakhov had the strongest campaign of his career. The young Russian finished ninth on the team in scoring with 16 goals and 29 points in 53 games, averaging 15:10 of ice time per game. Had he played the whole season at the same pace, Chinakhov would have finished with around 25 goals and 45 points.
Still, despite the strong offensive performance, there were legitimate concerns with other areas of Chinakhov’s game, particularly on defense. He finished that season with an 89.4% on-ice save percentage at even strength despite starting a majority of his shifts in the offensive zone. Unfortunately, nothing has improved since.
Since Evason took over behind the bench, Chinakhov’s ice time has been limited. He has yet to replicate his output from the 2023-24 campaign, scoring 10 goals and 21 points in 59 games since, averaging 13:03 of ice time. His possession metrics have improved mildly, though his metrics on the defensive side of the puck have continued to fall.
Chinakhov became so disheartened with his role with the organization that he eventually requested a trade from Columbus last summer. There were reportedly teams interested in his services, though General Manager Don Waddell was only willing to include him in a player-for-player swap, thus limiting his market. By the time that preseason action had begun, there were some indications that Evason and Chinakhov had improved their relationship.
Regardless of the perceived improvements to their relationship, that hasn’t turned into more ice time for Chinakhov. In fact, he’s averaged the lowest ATOI of his young career this season. Now, instead of being isolated to a fourth-line role with the Blue Jackets, he has the opportunity to crack a middle-six role with a different Metropolitan Division team.
Given their recent play, it’s highly unlikely that the Penguins are going to break up either of their top two lines. However, Chinakhov would be an immediate improvement on Ville Koivunen, who has scored one goal and four points in 25 games on the team’s third line. Additionally, Chinakhov could find his way onto Pittsburgh’s second power-play unit.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.
Now this is intriguing! A lot of upside in a guy like him. Curious to see how this pans out for them
3rd line to start if he gets hot/injury could see him being a good 2nd line winger akin to a healthy prime Josh Anderson
Except Anderson scores more, hits more, plays defense and plays gritty and Yegor doesn’t.
2 inches shorter and twenty pounds lighter.
apparently its for draft picks
Good move by the Penguins to try and rescue a team getting close to irrelevance
Forget it, Kyle..it’s Chinakhov.
What draft picks?
Heinan, 2nd and 3rd
Trade’s aren’t won, And lost in a day. Good lord.
This this the type of trade new York rangers needed to make
Ewww! A 2nd 3rd and Heinen for someone who is nothing but promise????? Glad Sabres avoided that.
Don’t like dealing the Blues pick. Before we knew the return I thought it would be a good trade as long as we don’t move any of our 1’s or 2’s or that Blues 2nd we got for taking Hayes. This is a bit steep.
This seems like a reasonable player to give a chance to, though. Maybe he and Geno click. We should deal Mantha, for sure…even if we should also make him another offer in the summer. He’s been a nice fit, but he’s exactly the type who has to be converted to assets.
Also, yeah…Koivunen has shown nothing this season after flashing some promise last year. Let him dominate in the AHL for a long stretch before giving him another shot here. He’s way too soft. Make him really earn it next time.
That’s a nice deal for Columbus to recoup some draft capitol.
Absolutely agree. It’s time for them just to tear it down. Kent Johnson they should move out as well. He definitely needs a change of scenery.
Columbus is a pretty solid team that really just needs a legitimate starting goalie to be competitive. Makes no sense to blow it up.
Wow, that is a lot to give up for a rebuilding team. He better come in there or guns of blaze and start scoring goals immediately.
Second and third round picks are critical on a rebuild
That’s honestly a solid return for Chinakhov, much better than I expected.
This is a beautiful move by the Penguins . Chinakhov is way underrated . Very good 3 zone defensive player and lots of untapped offence . Crazy that they were playing Sillinger ahead of him . Dubas is crushing it in Pittsburgh.
I like it for both teams. I think Sillinger stinks and I think Marchment stinks too. They both have some sandpaper to their game and the occasional flash of offensive magic but I think they’re net negative and having them both out there (I see why they moved voronkov to line 3 – but that’s the thing, sillinger and Marchment are black holes of cohesion). I still like Waddell making this move cause there’s no way they win this season as it is, so a race to the bottom for good picks makes sense. Now if he can obtain a good coach to guide them through the next phase, it could be a quick turn to better things next year, assuming they’re not planning to re-sign Marchment. Not sure but I’d guess sillinger is still under contract for a bit.
4 points in his first 3 games with Columbus, 3 of them goals. Not sure what he has to do to not stink.
Not even the so called experts mention anything about his defense. There’s half a dozen barely pronounceable Russian names on Columbus, you must have them confused.
Oof … that’s a pricey pickup for a guy who’s seriously brittle, hasn’t shown that he can play defensively, and has just a single season of good production to show. Unless the Jackets punt on the picks or Chinakhov comes out of nowhere to be a top-six producer, the Pens don’t come out ahead.
As someone who watches Columbus, Chinakhov is… Fine? But to me he kinda projects as a 3rd line scorer that can fill in 1/2 line duties in an injury scenario.
Like he’s not bad by any means, but he’s not worth what Pittsburgh paid IMHO. I was expecting more like depth for depth, maybe a 3rd. But Waddell held on til the best offer came to the table and you know what? I ain’t even mad.
At that price glad the Hawks didn’t get involved. I thought one of their 3 2nd round picks and a 5th would have been plenty for a guy who is basically a borderline bust and a malcontent. Penguins overpaid for a Lukas Reichel type change of scenery player basically. Good luck.
human turnstile on defense .. will fit perfectly with Pittsburgh
Same with there bottom 6, Dubas trying for another reclamation project. Looks to be an overpay for it this time though.
Pittsburgh is giving up some rather steep draft capital on Chinakhov, who has promise, yes, but it only pays off if Pittsburgh can get the potential out of Chinakhov. At the moment, Columbus may have gotten the better end of the deal here. It’s a gamble, I guess Pittsburgh is willing to take a shot on.
Dubas must know something about Chinakov that we don’t, to pay that much. If he just rolled the dice, it was irresposible.
Waddell should be commended for the patience. He wasn’t under pressure to move Chinakov. Evason may be going after this season, depending on the results. And under new coach, Chinakov could have thrived.
If Dubas is Cheese Sandwich and Chinakov is Chop Suey, what do we even have here? Who is eating either one of those sandwiches?
Um, what?
Im not calling this a bad move by Pens yet. We have so many draft picks, We have plenty of players to trade out for more picks. We have 2 players of the top 5 players on most goals list on new team. Mantha and Brazeau. Dubas has earn some trust. Before Dubas was here we had zero draft picks and our minor league system was trash, the baby pens are a wagon and we have depth and picks.