Penguins Sign Egor Chinakhov, Three Other RFAs

The Pittsburgh Penguins announced a quartet of restricted free agent signings after the deadline to file for salary arbitration passed at 5 P.M. ET. The list notably includes winger Egor Chinakhov who signed a three-year, $18.75MM contract. That deal carries an annual average value of $6.25MM, a significant raise from the $2.1MM cap hit he carried through the last two seasons.

Pittsburgh also signed goaltender Arturs Silovs (one-year, $2.8MM), goaltender Joel Blomqvist (two-year, $1.75MM), and forward David Gustafsson (one-year, $850K).

Chinakhov will cash in on a strong run with the Penguins through the second half of the season. He scored 36 points, split evenly, in 43 games in Pittsburgh after joining the team in a December deal that sent a 2026 second-round pick and 2027 third-round pick to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Chinakhov’s time with the Penguins began with eight points across his first 14 games. He continued his flashes of hot scoring throughout the season, including 10 points in his final seven games of the regular season.

Chinakhov’s combined 42 points through the 2025-26 season marked a new career-high, up from a modest 29 points scored in 53 games of the 2023-24 season. He appeared to be on an unsustainable heater through much of the year, a sentiment underscored by Chinakhov’s 102.7 PDO – a stat that combines on-ice save percentage and shooting percentage, with 100.0 seen as “standard” scoring luck.

Chinakhov did shoot at 15.0 percent this season, three percent higher than his career average of 12.0 through 247 career games. But, in Pittsburgh, he also earned a more prominent power-play role and commanded more respect as a shooter than he carried in Columbus. Chinakhov was productive in the Penguins lineup, scoring on pace for 69 points across 82 games. His new contract will set a clear goal for Chinakhov – sustaining that scoring across a full season. He should settle into a routine, middle-six role in pursuit of those marks.

The Penguins also rounded out their goaltending depth with these moves. Silovs stepped up as the de facto starter in a goaltending room going through plenty of turnover in the 2025-26 season. He finished the year with 19 wins and a .887 save percentage across 39 games, enough to stand above veterans Stuart Skinner and Tristan Jarry, and keep emerging rookie Sergei Murashov at bay. A short-term deal will give Silovs the chance to prove he can weather a true starter’s workload, in anticipation of a bigger payday next summer.

Meanwhile, Blomqvist will reassume the third-place spot on Pittsburgh’s depth chart, behind Silovs and Murashov. Blomqvist has recorded strong numbers across the last three AHL seasons – marked by 49 wins and a .916 Sv% in 89 games. Those performances didn’t translate to the NHL in Blomqvist’s sole stint with the Penguins in 2024-25. He appeared in 15 games and set a mere four wins and .885 Sv%. The start of Blomqvist’s 2025-26 season was delayed until November by a lower-body injury sustained in the pre-season. Full health next season should put him back in the race for NHL minutes as one of Pittsburgh’s many young netminders, though he’ll have the third favor.

Gustafsson, meanwhile, will take on an important role with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. He scored 10 goals and 32 points in 48 games with the Manitoba Moose last season, after failing to secure a spot in the Winnipeg Jets lineup through the last three seasons. Gustafsson has scored 20 points in 149 NHL games and 91 points in 136 AHL games throughout his career. He should rival a top-six role in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and could be a depth call-up if Pittsburgh is in need of help at center.