Pittsburgh Penguins trade young first-round pick to divisional rival

The Pittsburgh Penguins have been very active over the past 18 months in shaking this team up, and recently they made another trade, acquiring Yegor Chinakhov from the Columbus Blue Jackets.

As a result of landing the young winger, they placed blue liner Ryan Graves on waivers, and now, in a move that nobody saw coming, they've upgraded their defense in a deal with the Philadelphia Flyers.

With the acquisition of Chinakhov, the Penguins had no room for wingers and needed to make a move, and now, they have traded Philip Tomasino, a former first-round pick of the Nashville Predators to acquire Egor Zemula from the Philadelphia Flyers.

The move was a great one for Pittsburgh, who move out a winger and add yet another talented blue liner, with the 25-year old Zemula coming into this year on the back of two very solid seasons in Philadelphia.

It's unclear just how much of a role that Zemula will play for the team moving forward, but after spending his time split between the NHL and the AHL this season, it's safe to say that he's going to get a much bigger opportunity in Pittsburgh.

At the end of the day, this is a move to swap two talented but underperforming players in their early 20's, and now, both teams will be hoping that the change of scenery is exactly what they need to take their games to the next level.