Blue Jackets sign Egor Zamula to one-year contract

A young blueliner is staying in the Metropolitan Division.

On Tuesday, the Columbus Blue Jackets signed defenseman Egor Zamula to a one-year contract. The deal, set for the remainder of the 2025-26 season, has a cap hit of $1 million.

The signing comes less than an hour after Zamula’s contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins was terminated. The 25-year-old was placed on waivers by the team on Monday for the purpose of terminating his contract.

It came after a strange saga for Zamula. He started the campaign on the Philadelphia Flyers and was a constant in the lineup through the first few weeks of the season. However, he ended up being placed on waivers in early December, as he wasn’t seeing a lot of action in the prior weeks. Then, on New Year’s Eve, the Flyers traded the Chelyabinsk, Russia native to the Penguins in exchange for Philip Tomasino.

Then, Zamula was suspended by the Pens for not reporting to their American Hockey League affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. That led the team to decide to rid itself of his contract, which had a cap hit of $1.7 million through the end of the year.

Zamula last appeared in an NHL game on Dec. 7 in a 3-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche. He has a plus/minus of +4 while averaging just over 14 minutes per game. He had just one point in 13 games for the Flyers, notching an assist back on Oct. 20, when the team came away with a 5-2 victory over the Seattle Kraken.

In 168 NHL regular-season games, Zamula has scored eight goals and 33 assists for 41 points. In 130 AHL contests, he has posted five goals and 51 assists for 56 points.

The Blue Jackets (18-16-7) are last in the Eastern Conference, sitting six points back of the last Wild Card spot.