The Philadelphia Flyers didn’t want to lose Egor Zamula for nothing. So on New Year’s Eve, Flyers general manager Daniel Briere was able to find an unlikely partner to make a swap of out-of-favor young-ish pros: the Pittsburgh Penguins.

In a rare trade between the Flyers and Penguins, Briere shipped out the 25-year old defenseman Zamula — plying his trade in the minors after clearing waivers and being demoted on December 19 — and received Philip Tomasino, a 24-year old forward originally drafted in the first round by the Nashville Predators back in 2019.

Zamula’s inclusion in the trade was little surprise. Upon the return of Rasmus Ristolainen from injury two weeks ago, the Flyers front office made the decision that Zamula not only was no longer a nightly lineup regular at the NHL level, he was behind younger prospects like Ty Murchison as well on the organizational depth chart. Their choice to reassign Zamula to the AHL proved as much, and the fact that he cleared waivers (meaning that every team in the NHL could have taken he and the remainder of his $1.7 million cap hit on for nothing) spoke to his lack of value around the league.

According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman last Saturday night, Zamula and his agent Dan Milstein had approached the Flyers regarding the possibility of a contract termination — which would have made Zamula a free agent eligible to sign a deal with a cheaper cap hit — in order to give Zamula a chance to catch on with another organization that would put him back in the NHL. The Flyers, however, preferred to find a trade partner, as they were not interested in losing Zamula — a passable NHL depth defenseman at least — for nothing.

Tomasino, another player who had fallen out of his previous organization’s plans, isn’t nothing.

Just as was the case with Zamula, there was a time when Tomasino was viewed both a promising young prospect and an intriguing, developing NHLer. After being selected 24th overall in the 2019 draft (the same class that included Cam York and Bobby Brink), Tomasino exploded for 100 points in 62 games in the OHL in his Draft+1 season, and then produced at over a point-per-game pace (32 points in 29 games) in his debut AHL campaign, all before even turning 20 years of age.

His first full NHL season in 2021-22 seemed to confirm the hype — 32 points (11 goals, 21 assists) in 76 games with the Predators at age 20, despite averaging just 11:32 minutes per night. His 1.74 Points/60 rate at 5-on-5 and 73rd percentile ranking in even strength xG impact among NHL forwards (per Evolving-Hockey’s RAPM model) as a rookie stood as further evidence that Tomasino at least had future middle-sixer written all over him.

But then, Tomasino’s career in Nashville stagnated. He didn’t make the Predators out of training camp the following season (2022-23), but was still viewed highly enough in public and league circles that he ranked 14th on Corey Pronman’s redraft of the 2019 draft that was published just weeks later. He again thrived in the AHL (32 points in 38 games) but didn’t receive a call-up back to the show until February, producing points with the big club (18 points in 31 games) but posting far worse underlying metrics (15th percentile by xG) than he did as a rookie.

The 2023-24 season was both the final year of his entry-level contract, and the beginning of the end of his time with the Predators. While he did make the team out of camp this time, the 22-year old was unable to fully win over head coach Andrew Brunette, and was eventually demoted back to the AHL on February 12, 2024 — just before Nashville went on their ridiculous run of 18 straight games without a regulation loss which propelled them to the playoffs. While Tomasino was re-signed to a one-year deal that offseason, the writing was on the wall, and by November of the following season, he was shipped to Pittsburgh for a 2027 fourth round pick.

With Pittsburgh, the still-just-23-year old Tomasino had his moments, including three goals and four points in his first five games with the club, before his early momentum was halted after a hard hit from New York’s Sam Carrick. His production petered off at the end of the season (seven points in his final 18 games), and Tomasino (a restricted free agent) actually wasn’t issued a qualifying offer by the Penguins last summer, before Pittsburgh ultimately did bring him back on July 1 via a one-year, $1.75 million contract.

Coincidentally (or perhaps not), nearly the exact same cap hit of Egor Zamula.

Tomasino made the Penguins roster to start 2025-26, but like Zamula this season in Philadelphia, he quickly ended up in “depth piece” territory. He dressed for just nine of Pittsburgh’s first 19 games, and then was waived on November 18, ending up with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins after he cleared. Once again, Tomasino tore up the AHL (15 points in 14 games), but with no NHL call-up imminent, the Penguins deemed him expendable, just as the Predators had nearly two years prior.

In Tomasino, the Flyers get a still-youngish forward (mostly a winger, but with some experience at center) who has produced at acceptable rates at the NHL level and has long thrived in the AHL, but has been unable to carve out a long-term role in two separate locales. His career 5-on-5 metrics — 1.55 Points/60 (usually third-liner territory) and a +0.007 xG impact (generally in the 45th-50th percentile among NHL forwards) — hint that at the very least, Tomasino would be a quality bottom-six call-up option for the Flyers in case of injury. And there’s always the chance he returns to the form that made him such an exciting prospect in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Unless Tomasino can establish himself as a fixture in the Flyers’ bottom-six over the second half of 2025-26, he’s likely ticketed for the same fate this summer as in 2025 — with the Flyers choosing not to issue the pending RFA a qualifying offer and allowing him to test unrestricted free agency. At least to start, expect Tomasino to play in the AHL with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, likely taking the spot vacated by recent call-up Denver Barkey in their top-six. But injuries could give Tomasino his shot, and provide an opportunity for him to impress the Flyers brass in a depth NHL role and push into the future picture, the way that Ryan Poehling did.

And if not? Well, they at least received some extra organizational depth in return for Zamula, their former top defenseman prospect who simply never panned out the way they hoped he might.