This morning, the Philadelphia Flyers made one of the biggest moves of the offseason by acquiring forward Cam Atkinson from the Columbus Blue Jackets. The deal is a cap-friendly one and it gives the Flyers much-needed forward depth. The Blue Jackets are also getting a player that can score, which the team is in dire need of.
The Philadelphia Flyers announced Tuesday that they’ve acquired forward Cam Atkinson from the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for forward Jakub Voracek and a second round pick in the 2017 NHL Draft. The 25-year-old Atkinson played in all 82 games last season as the Blue Jackets’ third line center.
The Philadelphia Flyers have signed Columbus Blue Jackets forward Cam Atkinson to a six-year contract extension. The contract is worth $31.5 million, according to the Columbus Dispatch. The deal is expected to give the Flyers the right-handed forward for the next six seasons. The Flyers will receive $18 million over the first three years of the contract, according to the Dispatch. The contract is the latest high-profile deal for the Flyers, who have seen six of their top nine restricted free agents sign new contracts since July 1.. Read more about flyers nhl and let us know what you think.
The Columbus Blue Jackets and Philadelphia Flyers chose to make a major adjustment to the composition of their respective top-six forward groupings on Day 2 of the 2021 NHL draft, exchanging Cam Atkinson for Jakub Voracek in a one-for-one exchange.
Chuck Fletcher of the Flyers and Jarmo Kekalainen of the Blue Jackets have had a hectic two days. Let’s look at the specifics of this transaction and assign a grade to each GM.
The Flyers’ and Voracek’s relationship was obviously over. Chuck Fletcher, the franchise’s general manager, met with him to discuss his future with the team. They were marketing him after leaving him vulnerable in the expansion draft.
“We have to look at various ways to become better,” Fletcher said, and moving on amicably from Voracek — who had no trade protection — seemed to be one of them.
Rather than the passing playmaker Voracek, they get a pure goal scorer in Atkinson. Atkinson scored 20 goals or more in each of the seasons from 2013-14 to 2018-19. He scored in both 5-on-5 and special teams situations. In 2018-19, he had his greatest goal-scoring season, with 41 goals while playing alongside Artemi Panarin. In his first two seasons in the NHL, when he averaged fewer than a goal per 60 minutes of play, the results haven’t been there.
2 Related
Is this an indication of a downward trend or two unusual seasons brought on by the pandemic?
Atkinson provides the Flyers with a reliable penalty killer, something Voracek lacked. At 5-on-5, though, neither player is a defensive stopper. They’re just looking for a way to score.
Here, the Flyers get a short-term cap advantage. By replacing Voracek’s $8.25 million AAV with Atkinson’s $5.875 million AAV, they gain $2,375,000 in cap room. This season, every dollar matters for the Flyers, who must re-sign defender Travis Sanheim and goaltender Carter Hart while continuing to add players to their roster.
However, the move provides them with a player who is under contract for one more season (2024-25) than Voracek.
The Flyers may have achieved their objective of “becoming better.”
Voracek has returned home. He started his career with the Columbus Blue Jackets, who selected him seventh overall in the 2007 draft. He spent three seasons there before being traded to Philadelphia in the Jeff Carter deal in 2011.
The Flyers wanted a playmaker in exchange for a goal scorer, while the Blue Jackets desired the reverse. Voracek provides them with a pure passer who can play on either wing and has averaged over two assists per 60 minutes in three of the last four seasons. He averaged 1.9 assists per 60 minutes when he didn’t. He is currently ranked 15th among active players with 522 assists. That’s great news for the team’s remaining goal scorers, like as Gustav Nyquist and, of course, Patrik Laine.
They add more money to their cap than they did with Atkinson since Voracek’s salary was not retained by the Flyers. The Jackets aren’t precisely against the cap ceiling after all of their recent transactions, including the transfer of defender Seth Jones to the Blackhawks. Even better, Voracek’s contract expires one season sooner than Atkinson’s (2023-24).
The only downside for Columbus is that adding a player of Atkinson’s age doesn’t really fit with the reconstruction they’ve already begun. However, since it is a flat cap, “hockey swaps” are occasionally necessary to gain more flexibility in the long run. You could do a lot worse than having Voracek back to pass to the Blue Jackets’ next generation of players.
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