Photo Credit: Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images
Egor Zamula had a brief 14 game stint with the big club in the 2022-23 season. Zamula finished his last recall with four assists and was a plus/minus of 0. He looked confident and made some plays that lead to quick zone exits. Zamula has defensive awareness, which is a good thing to have on the big stage, but he could get bigger and stronger in the same process. Last season, Flyers’ General Manager Danny Briere wasted no time with re-signing Zamula to a one-year prove it deal worth $775,000, which is the league minimum.
Zamula had an up and down 2023-24 season, with him showcasing his skills on the Power Play in January, in particular. He started the season off strong, then fell off a bit towards the latter part of November through December. Zamula bounced back and put together an “Ok” campaign.
Of course, the Flyers inked Zamula to a two-year $3.4 million extension ($1.7 million AAV) this past offseason. Zamula has shown enough to earn this deal, and the hope is he battles for a permanent spot out of camp. He is the front runner for the sixth defensive position at the moment, with presumably Emil Andrae, Hunter McDonald, and Erik Johnson on his heels. This is something that Flyers Head Coach John Tortorella and Danny Briere have preached time and time again throughout the course of the season, “We’re not looking out to go sign a big-time free agent with lots of term on a contract at the moment,” Briere said at his season ending presser. “We want to give our young players the opportunity to develop, and we want to see what we have before kind of blocking some of the young guys.”
Tortorella wants Zamula to make the play more quickly. If he sees it, then make it without hesitating. This has been a work in progress on this part, but he was much smoother in that regard towards the latter part of the season. He did show poise, and made some nice clean zone exits. Honestly, Zamula did a good job and he could be part of the solution moving forward for the Flyers, as his game has grown over the course of the year.
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Zamula became a key cog for Matvei Michkov adapting to North America, culture wise, and learning how to become a pro, as well. Him re-signing was important, and this could be one of the very many reasons why, “We were with each other for 24 hours. We make his mom dinner,” Zamula said. “We went to the US Open because we love Tennis, New York City, Atlantic City it was a good time. He’s doing a Good job, and I’m happy for him.”
Both him and Ivan Fedotov became huge assets for the growth of Michkov, most notably adapting to the culture of America, “One guy from Russia it’s very hard. After good games or bad games you want to talk to somebody,” Zamula said. “It’s hard talking to your TV or chair. Very fun having a couple more Russians, having Russian dinners or hanging out. It’s not hard for me to help him.”
Zamula continues, “Come from Canada I was crying. I tried to do my best, never give up, try to understand my teammates.”
Erik Johnson was getting along with Michkov, well before Training Camp begun. Yesterday, he left a big piece of paper for Zamula to translate to Michkov, “Today when we showed up in the locker room. Somebody put a big paper to translate, did you already find a US Woman? It was to translate. I said, holy, let’s focus on hockey. It was pretty funny, it was Erik Johnson, so I shook his hand,” Zamula said laughing.
It looks like Zamula is having a lot of fun with Michkov, and some of the team, as well, for that matter.
