There’s a new face in town for the Pittsburgh Penguins. 

On Monday, the team announced a trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets that saw them land winger Yegor Chinakov. 

Going back to Columbus is a second round pick in 2026 (originally belonging to St. Louis), a third round pick in 2027 (0riginally belonging to Washington), and forward Danton Heinen. 

This is an interesting trade for the Penguins. It’s kind of out of the blue, and the casual Penguins fan probably has no idea who Chinakov is, and that’s ok.

If there was a big board of players who might benefit from a change of scenery, Chinakov would be near the top of the list. 

He’s a winger with a lot of skill and a lot of untapped potential that could just never fully find his way with his draft team. Chinakov was a first round pick by Columbus back in 2020, when the Blue Jackets selected him 21st overall.

On draft night, his pick was considered a huge reach. Many of the mock draft and pre-draft scout rankings had Chinakov tabbed as a second or third round talent, certainly not someone who would watch his name be called on night one. 

In fact, just to give you an idea of how much this pick caught people off guard, you go back and re-watch the recording of the 2020 NHL Draft’s first round. NBC Sports had no footage of Chinakov as a player and quickly had to pivot to a different team and player to try and fill the gap in coverage. 

The Blue Jackets, who have long suffered as one of the lower franchises in the NHL, took a lot of criticism for the pick.

Chinakov, who was 18 at the time of his draft, had never played in Russia’s top league, the KHL. In his draft year, he played 56 games for Omskie Yastreby of the MHL a junior league in Russia. There, he had 27 goals and 42 assists (69 points).

As is sometimes the case with Russian draft picks, there was also concern over whether Chinakov would ever actually come over to North America. The uncertainty of his skill and potential NHL ETA gave Chinakov, and the Blue Jackets, plenty of skeptics.

In the first year after his draft, Chinakov did in fact get to the KHL, where he scored 10 goals and added seven assists (17 points) in 32 games. Columbus looked vindicated when roughly two calendar years later, Chinakov made the NHL roster and skated regularly with the Blue Jackets. 

Though the Omsk native only had seven goals and as many assists (14 points), he was able to figure into 62 games for Columbus in his rookie season. 

But, it just hasn’t all come to fruition during his time with the organization. He had four goals and nine assists (13 points) in 30 games for the Blue Jackets in the 2022-23 season. He started to finally show signs of a breakout in 2023-24, when he scored 16 goals and added 13 assists (29 points) in 53 games, but took a bit of a step back last year when he managed only seven goals and eight assists (15 points) in 30 games.

This past summer, he requested a trade from Columbus, citing “misunderstandings” he had with head coach Dean Evason, who was in his first year behind the bench for Columbus last year. The Blue Jackets held onto hom throughout the offseason, but now, he finally gets his wish.  

The 24-year-old is still a player who has a ton of potential, but hasn’t been able to put it all together. Can a new location, new teammates, and new staff finally help make it all click? That’s what the Penguins are hoping.

From the Pittsburgh end, this is certainly a little pricey. 

Heinen going back isn’t a huge loss for the Penguins. The veteran forward started the year in the American Hockey League before being recalled, and has contributed just a pair of points in 13 games. He didn’t have much of a future here, but maybe he can carbon out a better role for himself in Columbus’ bottom-six. 

Those picks, though, are a costly price. A second and a third rounder packaged together can get you a lot in the NHL. Usually, they don’t go for players who aren’t fully established in the league.

It feels like the Penguins are paying based on what Chinakov’s potential is, not what his current results are. If Dubas and his pro scouting team is correct, that’s not a bad bet. But obviously, we’ll only find out if they were right with time.

This season, Chinakov only had three goals and three assists (six points) in 29 games. That’s not super promising. But, he’s also only averaging 10:18 a night. Just for some perspective, that’s a lower average for every single player who has suited up for the Penguins so far this season, minus Boko Imama.

When you’re struggling to establish yourself in the NHL as a young player, it’s hard to get a lot going with that little time on the ice. Working with a coach whose specialty is young talent, and coming to a team trying to grow prospects in various different ways, he will likely see a spike in that time.

It’s worth noting too that Chinakov is on an expiring contract. He’s in the second of a two-year extension he signed with Columbus that pays him $2.1 million against the cap. He will be a restricted free agent at year’s end, which essentially ensures he will remain a Penguin past this season if that’s what the organization wants. 

It’s certainly one of the riskier deals Kyle Dubas has made since his transition from win-now to acquiring young talent. 

The good thing is, even if it is in fact an overpay, the Penguins have plenty of picks to work with. Pittsburgh has 26 draft picks over the next three drafts, and even after this trade, no team in the NHL has more picks in the first three rounds over the next three years than the Penguins.

When you acquire as many picks as Dubas has over the last two years, you never intend to actually use them all. Frankly, it would be irresponsible to hoard all of them instead of trying to pawn them into more NHL-ready talent. With how many picks the Penguins had and still have, it’s kind of like playing with house money.

So the idea of trading a second and a third for someone is pretty manageable, if you believe you can get the best out of that player. It’s not a bad bet, in theory.

The question just becomes whether or not Chinakov was the right player to try that theory on.