Photo Credit: Katelynn Reiss
The acquisition of Cam Atkinson highlighted some of the priorities that the Flyers had for their offseason shopping list: leadership, ability to play 5-on-5 and special teams, and a focus on shooting. Before the two Covid shortened seasons, Atkinson averaged 20+ goals per season. His career high came in the 2018-2019 season when he scored 41 goals to go along with his 28 assists. Pairing a player like Cam Atkinson with a talented passer like Claude Giroux has helped catapult both players to tops on the team in scoring with Giroux sitting with 31 points, and Atkinson with 29 points respectively.
It’s crazy to believe that the Flyers were one of the last teams to score a short-handed goal last season and their special teams often struggled. Atkinson fills gaps in both the power play and penalty killing units. This helps alleviate some of the pressure off of forwards such as Claude Giroux and Sean Couturier (When healthy), who are tasked with playing on both units as well. Atkinson has been a prolific short-handed goal scorer in his career, amassing 16 goals in 10 years. Last season he matched a career high with four short-handed tallies.
Besides his talents on the ice, Atkinson was brought in as a veteran leadership presence. He was an Alternate Captain with the Blue Jackets and, Atkinson’s leadership is needed now more than ever as the team is enduring a second 10 game skid this season:
“He (Mike Yeo) relies on me in a lot of situations and as a player that’s all you can ask for. I just try leading by example in practice and obviously in games and just with my work ethic and doing the right things away from the puck. Hopefully guys watch and want to do the same thing. Just lead by example.” – Cam Atkinson
Atkinson is also very involved in charity, having started the Force Network Fund which benefits military and first responders and the Battery Hockey Academy which helps children get on the ice to play hockey. He continues to support the Columbus community and Atkinson has brought that passion to the Philadelphia area.
Of all the Flyers offseason acquisitions, Cam Atkinson is one that has paid off in a big way. He is a veteran that Fletcher can build around if the team does indeed want to rebuild.
“You have to believe,” Atkinson said last night following the game. “Everyone has us written off. The only guys that are going to get out of it are the guys in the locker room. We have to stick together and hold each other accountable. At the end of the day it’s going to be the guys in the room that dig ourselves out of this mess. We get on the road tomorrow and have an early game there in Buffalo and we’ll have a good practice tomorrow. You have to stay positive. It’s easy during this time to point fingers and get negative and be selfish and start doing the wrong things on the ice. We have to stick together.”
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