It’s been a busy week in the front office of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

On December 29th, the Penguins swung a trade with a division rival in Columbus for forward Yegor Chinakov, a promising yet underperforming winger who the Penguins hoped could benefit from a change of scenery. They shipped depth forward Danton Heinen and a pair of picks out to the Blue Jackets to make that deal happen.

Two days later, while many of us were awaiting the arrival of the new Year, general manager Kyle Dubas made a second trade. On New Year’s Eve, the Penguins traded forward Philip Tomasino to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenseman Egor Zamula.

It was a swap of recently-waived players who didn’t appear to have much of a future in their current environments. But while Tomasino might one day get back to the NHL in orange and black, Zamula will never play a game at any level in the Penguins organization.

Zamula, who had played three games for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Flyers, reportedly refused to report to Pittsburgh’s AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

Days later, the Penguins suspended Zamula for failure to report, and the two sides soon moved to simply terminate the 24-year-old’s contract.

On Monday, Zamula was placed on waivers for the purposes of contract termination. He cleared, allowing him and the team to part ways and move on.

Zamula’s agent, Dan Milstein, put out a statement on Tuesday that, in part, explains Milstein and his client Zamula were looking for the best opportunity to return to the NHL as quickly as possible.

They had two main options: seek a trade to another team, or move to have his contract terminated.

In a way, Zamula got to have his cake and eat it, too.

Zamula got out of Philadelphia, a place where his playing time was sharply reduced this season, and got his new team to terminate his contract, making him a free agent.

Yesterday, he officially signed with the Blue Jackets on a one-year, $1 million deal.

He’ll join a Columbus team that is currently last place the Eastern Conference. But, it is a place that is looking for reinforcements and can provide Zamula with opportunity to get playing time in the NHL again.

Long story short, Zamula is accepting a lower salary now in the hopes that it will pay off in the future. As it stands right now, he probably has a better future with Columbus this season than he did with Philadelphia, even if the Flyers are ahead in the standings.

In all of this, the Penguins look like the clear losers of this trade. They traded a guy for someone who failed to report, was suspended, and now will play for a division rival. That’s not a great look.

But, this trade is not a total loss for Pittsburgh. Here’s why.

In moving out Tomasino, the Penguins save money against the salary cap. Tomasino’s $1.75 million cap hit, on a deal he signed this summer with the Penguins, now heads east to Philadelphia. That’s money that the Penguins were not using, and now can.

Were the Penguins necessarily hurting for cap space right now? No, Pittsburgh has an abundance of it. But, that still could come in handy at the trade deadline, no matter which direction Dubas decides he wants to go.

If the Penguins move to sell and acquire futures, they have a ton of room to take on unfavorable contracts from contending teams, and gain even more assets for that favor.

If they somehow decide to buy, they have a ton of freedom to do whatever they want in the trade market.

In addition to that, Pittsburgh also gains a roster spot, something that the Dubas-era Penguins have always seen as valuable. Tomasino’s departure and Zamula’s termination nets the Penguins an extra contract spot in their limit of 50, giving the team more flexibility to sign depth elsewhere.

In the end, it’s a winning situation for almost everyone, just to different extents. Zamula gets a new contract and a chance to play in the NHL again, Tomasino gets a chance of scenery, the Flyers get an additional forward, and the Penguins get cap and roster space.

The only real loser here is Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. The loss of Tomasino, who had five goals and ten assists (15 points) in 14 games, is huge to the AHL Penguins, who have suffered a plethora of losses in recent weeks.

Tomasino, Heinen, and Sam Poulin (who was traded as part of the Stuart Skinner deal) were all key contributors to the AHL Penguins, and the farm team has received little in supplements to those losses.