Let’s cut to the chase right away: It was a disastrous, no-good, terrible year for Cam Atkinson, and it might just have been the end of his NHL career.
When the 34-year-old was acquired from Columbus in the Jake Voracek trade, the Flyers hoped that the perennial 20-to-30-goal scorer would continue his scoring ways in Philadelphia, especially once they hired Atkinson’s former coach John Tortorella. But, after a major injury early in 2022, Atkinson’s career as a Flyer was put on hold, and the veteran took the ice in 2023-24 looking to prove he still belonged in the NHL.
Believe it or not, Atkinson actually looked like he might still have some scoring touch in the early goings of the season. Out of his 13 goals on the year, Atkinson scored five in the first nine games of the season, tallying three assists in his hot start.
After goals in back-to-back games in early November against the Ducks and Kings, Atkinson’s play fell off a cliff. Spanning from November 15 to January 13, the forward went 26 games without a goal, and was benched for a game in the streak. Atkinson finally broke through with a two-goal performance at Winnipeg and scored five goals in a six-game span following the end of the drought. It looked like he might have gotten back to a respectable level in January, but yet again, Atkinson fell off a cliff in the final months of the season, in terms of both scoring and play-driving. As a team, the Flyers only registered 34% of the expected goals with Atkinson on the ice, one of the worst marks on the team.
Atkinson even lost the faith of Tortorella, who benched Atkinson numerous times in the final stretch run of the season, even in favor of lineups that went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen. Having an extra defenseman was more valuable to the coaching staff than having Atkinson on the ice, which is saying something about the little value of Atkinson to this Flyers team by the end of the season.
Three Questions
Did they live up to expectations?
No, absolutely not. I can’t say there were a ton of high expectations for Atkinson in his return from a herniated disk from his neck, but he failed to meet any that could have possibly been set. There was definitely hope, at least in the beginning of the year – when Atkinson was scoring at a respectable rate for an NHLer – that Atkinson had something left in the tank. But, in his massive 26 game scoreless streak and subsequent end-of-season disappearance, Atkinson just looked like a guy out of juice. The Flyers had to hope or expect Atkinson to remain an NHLer, but now that outcome appears more unlikely than likely.
What can we expect from them next season?
Atkinson has one year left on his contract, and I’d really expect the Flyers to explore the buyout option with the 34-year-old. It’s not just that cap space is at a premium in this era, it’s that the Flyers simply can’t afford anymore for Atkinson to be on the team. Maybe Atkinson can ride the bench and appear in limited action in 2024-25, but that requires both the player to accept that role and the team to carry his heftier salary. It might be a tough pill for noted-Atkinson fan John Tortorella to swallow, but buying out Atkinson makes the most sense in terms of both financial and on-ice impacts.
The cost of doing a buyout? Well, the buyout will extend into 2025-26, with a roughly $1.76-million cap hit each year. In year one, the Flyers will save about $2.36 million in cap space, and the Flyers will likely want that space to weaponize in the offseason and the upcoming season. A buyout feels like where this situation is headed, especially with the cap going up in the near future.
How do we grade their 2023-24 season?
Unfortunately for Cam, I think we all know where this grade is headed.
Grade: F
