Egor Zamula’s tenure in the Pittsburgh Penguins organization is not off to a good start.
Saturday, the AHL transaction page showed the Penguins suspended Zamula, presumably for not reporting to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins following the Penguins’ trade Wednesday, Dec. 31, which sent forward Philip Tomasino to the Philadelphia Flyers organization for Zamula.
Both players were assigned to their new organization’s respective AHL clubs.
Philadelphia waived the Russian defenseman on Dec. 19. He cleared on the 20th and was assigned to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the AHL. Zamula, 25, has 168 games of NHL experience.
He played three games with Lehigh Valley before the trade. Travel to WBS would not be much of an issue, as the WBS Penguins and LV Phantoms are only about 60 miles apart. Lehigh Valley plays its home games in Allentown, PA.
Zamula is the second player the Penguins organization has suspended this season. Following training camp in October, prospect Emil Pieniniemi rejected his assignment to Wheeling of the ECHL and returned home to Finland. Pieniniemi only recently returned to Wheeling in late December and has played a couple of games since the ECHL resumed play following a short strike.
Financially, the suspension helps the Penguins’ NHL club. Zamula is in the second year of a two-year, $3.4 million deal, which carries a $1.7 million salary cap hit. The team can stash only $1.15 million, meaning that before the suspension, he counted $550,000 against the NHL cap.
Pittsburgh Hockey Now will update the story if there are further developments or statements by Zamula or the team Saturday.
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