The Egor Zamula Era in Philadelphia is officially over. The Flyers have traded him to the archrival Pittsburgh Penguins in a minor one-for-one swap that saw an actual centerman come the other way.
Announced by the Flyers on Wednesday afternoon, they have traded the 25-year-old defenseman to the Penguins for 24-year-old center Philip Tomasino. In the release, the Flyers are making it clear that Tomasino is off to the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms instead of popping up with the big club immediately.
TRADE ALERT: We have acquired forward Philip Tomasino from Pittsburgh in exchange for defenseman Egor Zamula. Tomasino will report to the @LVPhantoms (AHL). https://t.co/Y5euAzx0o7
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) December 31, 2025
This trade was coming for a little bit. Zamula has fallen out of favor on the Flyers blue line and was regularly a healthy scratch throughout the season, lacing up for just 13 games. And then when Rasmus Ristolainen returned from injury to make his season debut, that only pushed the 25-year-old Russian further down the depth chart of available blueliners and he was swiftly placed on waivers and sent down to the AHL soon after.
Zamula then, according to recent reports, wanted out of his current deal in a mutual termination and then be set free to re-start his NHL career with a new organization. A fresh start made complete sense but since Flyers general manager Danny Briere would have to actually sign off on that contract termination and just let him walk away for nothing, it made more sense to explore the trade market first. And that is what all the recent reports said, that Zamula could be traded before any whispers of terminating his contract and just becoming San Jose’s seventh defenseman or something.
That perfectly leads us to this deal within the Metropolitan Division and is the first trade between the Flyers and the Penguins that actually involves a player since 2010 when Philadelphia sent the signing rights to Dan Hamhius to Pittsburgh for a third-round pick.
Flyers get potential quality depth center in return for Zamula
It’s a trade that makes sense for both teams in the end. Despite both of these players being on the waiver wire recent enough, making this swap is addressing some issues for both teams. We don’t pretend to really care about the Penguins but sure, they could use someone on their blue line that has actually played some NHL games before but also can be easily sent down to the AHL for now.
For the Flyers, even if Tomasino is off to Allentown right now, it might not be for too long. There were ample reports that Briere was searching for a depth center to supplement the pivot position just a little bit further and while the 24-year-old isn’t some stud that can suddenly push this team into more security of a playoff spot, he is at least capable of playing down the middle, at least in theory.
Tomasino is listed as a center but when looking further, he has barely been involved in any faceoffs throughout the 218 games of his career — he has taken just 112 faceoffs in that time and has won a grand total of 41 of them. He might not be the answer but we’ll surely find that out in the coming weeks as he takes up a spot on the Phantoms.
The 24-year-old from Mississauga, Ont. has scored 34 goals and 95 points in those 218 games with stints at Nashville and Pittsburgh. Tomasino peaked during his rookie year (which is also when he was given the most ice-time and opportunity) for the Predators, scoring 11 goals and 32 points in 76 games.
It wasn’t just a solid trade only for some positional need, but the Flyers managed to shed Zamula’s entire $1.7-million AAV in the process. Now, as a restricted free agent this summer, there is little doubt that the Flyers wouldn’t have just not qualified the defenseman and set him free if he lasted here for that long, but it provides just a little bit more financial flexibility for this season. The Flyers now have over $13 million in cap space, which is the eighth-most in the NHL.
We’ll just have to wait and see whether or not the Flyers see enough NHL quality in Tomasino for this trade to really hit, but even if Zamula was shipped off for future considerations somewhere, it’s a problem within the organization that is now solved.
