The inevitable domino for the Philadelphia Flyers has finally fallen. Cam Atkinson, a 35-year-old veteran winger, has been bought out by the club. It will save the Orange and Black $3.52 million against the salary cap in 2024-25 and cost them $1.76 million in 2025-26.
For the Flyers, this was something that had to happen. The veteran winger wasn’t himself anymore for a rebuilding Flyers team and saw himself fall out of favor with the club down the stretch—he was a frequent healthy scratch by the end of his 2023-24 campaign. He was poor defensively and scored just 28 points in 70 games, making his prior cap hit of just under $6 million one that no teams were going to seriously consider adding without some compensation.
Atkinson has done incredible community work during his time in the NHL, so keeping him on the bench would have been a disservice to all he has done during his time in the league. Seeing as he doesn’t have a Stanley Cup to his name yet, wasting another year of his time probably wasn’t the move. Instead, he is free to sign with anyone for as cheap as he wants to try and compete in the playoffs, assuming that’s what he desires.
Related: Flyers Should Buy Out Cam Atkinson in 2024 Offseason
The Flyers can free up a lot more cap space if they were to put injured Ryan Ellis and Ryan Johansen on long-term injured reserve (LTIR), but they seemingly have just enough room to bring back their restricted free agents (RFAs) but probably not do anything else as it stands. If they put those players on LTIR, we can assume that they’ll have a little bit over $10 million to spare, even with their RFAs signed.
