Trade Buzz: Pittsburgh’s thinking on Yegor Chinakhov Acquisition & the View outside of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Receives: F Yegor Chinakhov

Columbus Receives: F Danton Heinen, 2026 2nd Rd Pick (STL), 2027 3rd Rd Pick (WAS)

In a Kyle Dubas type trade in targeting younger falling out of favor players, the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday afternoon acquired forward Yegor Chinakhov, the 21st overall pick in the 2020 draft, in exchange for veteran forward Danton Heinen, a 2026 2nd round pick (STL) and a 2027 3rd round pick (WAS).

Dubas during his tenure as Penguins GM, Dubas has not made fans with the likes of Sidney Crosby’s inner circle and others who with the Penguins being competitive, want to see second and third rounders moved for more established proven help and this trade of taking a flier on Chinakhov won’t change that one bit. However, what is different in this type of trade was kind of the opposite from Dubas where he paid a pretty high acquisition cost for a dicey player in a bad situation, whereas Dubas almost takes other GM’s to the cleaners on a value trade chart.

The view around the league is Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell did extremely well for a first round bust that didn’t get along with the head coach and who turns 25 in February. The 2026 2nd-rounder in a deep draft that could be a top-40 pick is seen as having great value for the Blue Jackets in trying to upgrade the roster over the coming months. As many picks as the Penguins have, there are certainly questions among rival executives who wonder if Chinakhov was the right play for Pittsburgh in moving a pick that early. Skepticism of the Chinakhov addition for Pittsburgh is a view from some evaluators that this is a player who needs a clear top-6 role and to be told how good he is every day to prop him up. Chinakhov is quickly being viewed from those outside the Penguins organization as once again being a player without a role. However, the Penguins brass does not look at him like a Philip Tomasino who has to be play in the top-6 to be successful. Pittsburgh believes Chinakhov could awaken in a third line scoring role and is just a much better player around the edges with his size and defensive acumen. Was this a classic Kyle Dubas acquisition of hoping Chinakhov meets internal expectations in the short and long-term to cash in on trading an expiring contract like Anthony Mantha who is drawing significant interest around the league? That’s obviously a play few wouldn’t be surprised to see six to eight weeks from now.

Trade Talks were once much bigger…………Pittsburgh and Columbus began talking about Chinakhov in the summer when a much sizeable trade was discussed that would have sent To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

However, if there’s one player who’s spot in the lineup might be murky moving forward in the lineup as a regular with the Chinakhov acquisition and Evgeni Malkin close to returning, it’s certainly Koivunen.

Penguins coaches feel the team is a much different club in matchups when they can deploy a line of Connor Dewar-Blake Lizotte-Noel Acciari and that was on display again Tuesday night. Sidney Crosby loves playing with Rust and Rickard Rakell and that’s going to continue to be the top unit

Justin Brazeau and Anthony Mantha have been a great match together and it’s going to take a trade of one of them to break that up.

If the team gets healthy/stays healthy and remain in playoff race, probably looking at:

Rakell-Crosby-Rust

Mantha-Malkin-Brazeau

Novak-Kindel-Chinakhov

Dewar-Lizotte-Acciari

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