Jan. 6, 1:04 p.m.: Zamula has cleared waivers and is now an unrestricted free agent, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. He’s expected to sign another NHL deal this week with at least six teams expressing interest, per Chris Johnston of The Athletic.
Jan. 5, 1:10 p.m.: Zamula has officially hit unconditional waivers, per Frank Seravalli of Victory+.
Jan. 5, 11:28 a.m.: The Penguins are set to place defenseman Egor Zamula on unconditional waivers on Monday, PuckPedia reports. He will have his contract terminated if he clears tomorrow, making him an unrestricted free agent.
Zamula was suspended without pay on Saturday for refusing to report to Pittsburgh’s AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The Russian rearguard had been acquired just days before from the Flyers in exchange for winger Philip Tomasino.
It’s not surprising to see Zamula opt for a contract termination, although few expected it to happen after a trade. Zamula cleared standard waivers while with Philadelphia and initially reported to their AHL affiliate in Lehigh Valley, where he remained assigned at the time of the swap. The 25-year-old then quickly changed his agents and was reportedly considering triggering a contract termination by failing to report, with the Flyers being open to taking a forward contract back in a separate trade for future considerations.
That was, of course, assuming Zamula signed with said team after clearing unconditional waivers with the Flyers. Since he was traded before hitting the wire, Pittsburgh will now have parted ways with Tomasino without getting anything out of Zamula in his brief time under contract with the organization.
Zamula will be walking away from about half of the $1.4MM base salary he was owed this season. There is still interest in his services from other NHL teams, and he’s expected to quickly sign a new deal – likely for the prorated league minimum – quickly after becoming a free agent tomorrow, per PuckPedia.
The 6’3″, 200-lb lefty will bring an 8-33–41 career scoring line in 168 NHL games to the open market. That includes one assist and a +4 rating in 13 appearances with the Flyers earlier this year.
Did we trade for him not knowing he wouldn’t report to WBS?
And, why not just let him rot on the vine…unless this was just a way to save $1 M.
Penguins should get some type of compensation back, thats b.s. thats why you never trade with a rival team. Tommy is serviceable
Or they should’ve done their homework and realized he didn’t want to play in the minors.
The pens were not going to use Tomasino. They likely knew this was going to happen prior to the trade. This essentially rids them of a contract.
It’s surprising to me there is this much interest in this deal.
I’m pretty sure they did do their homework. It was reported early that this was the likely outcome. Clears the Pens of Tomasino’s contract and salary owed. Sure, they have the cap space, but people often ignore that cash is a real thing in pro sports
If they wanted to clear tomasinos money and they knew this could happen, then it’s basically like terminating tomasinos contract. No harm, no foul
lmfao mmmmk. Never do trades with Rivals, especially Philthadelphia. Flyers are loving this, Win-Win for them!
ThereIsOnlyBadTakes
Who cares? Pittsburgh isn’t good and tomasino will flame out quickly. It’s a non result most likely
Zamula isn’t a game breaker and Tomasino has fallen off a cliff since his rookie year, saves a contract spot for the Penguins and 1 less 7th defender and pretty much a useless/easily replaceable player blocking some youth