Well, we have one of our first substantial Flyers trade rumors of the summer.
Early Tuesday, TSN’s Darren Dreger reported that the Flyers have been actively shopping Cam Atkinson, or at least trying to sort out the future for the 35-year-old winger. The San Jose Sharks, according to Dreger, are at the forefront of the discussions for the veteran winger, but any potential deal may be held up by Atkinson’s partial no movement clause.
Atkinson has one year remaining on his contract that has a $5.875-million AAV and was consistently in and out of the lineup for the Flyers last year. With some financial inflexibility for Philadelphia and the player not getting the role he particularly wants, a move — whether it is a trade or a buyout, as Dregre reported — could happen shortly.
Why the Sharks would do it
Out of any team in the league, there’s no clearer rebuilding team than San Jose. Finishing a league worst 19-54-9, good for only 47 points, the focus for the Sharks is putting their young talent in the best position to develop at the NHL level. Next year’s edition of the Sharks will likely feature top center prospect Will Smith and about-to-be No. 1 pick Macklin Celebrini – and GM Mike Grier is likely going to want to surround them with one-or-two quality veterans to ease the development process along.
That’s where Cam Atkinson can be a help, I think. We’ve heard the Flyers brass wax poetic a bit about Atkinson and his impact on the culture these last couple of years, especially with Tortorella’s effusive praise in Columbus. While Atkinson may not be the most effective player on the ice anymore, San Jose could at least gain some kind of value in his off-ice impact.
And finally, from the San Jose perspective, the Sharks desperately need to reach the cap floor. Currently, they are roughly $14 million from the $65-million cap floor, and they simply need guys to adhere to the cap. Even at 50% of Atkinson’s cap hit (assuming the Flyers retain the other half), $2.9375 million will help the Sharks raise their cap a bit. The Sharks might even get a mid-to-late draft pick to do it.
What happens if Atkinson rejects the deal?
By the sound of Dreger’s report, it seems as if the Sharks are on Atkinson’s 10 team no-trade-list. If Atkinson were to reject the deal, that leaves pretty much every option on the table with the winger.
The Flyers could look for another trade, but it’s hard to imagine that the market is incredibly robust for the player. Teams, especially contending ones, don’t want to take on any substantial money for players like Atkinson. There might still be gas left in the tank for Cam, but the odds of that feel quite slim. Feels like a bet a contender would take at the deadline for cheap rather than for an entire season at $2.9375 million or more.
There’s also the buyout option, if the Flyers were dead set on removing Atkinson from the team. To do that, the Flyers would save $3.516 million in 2024-25, but carry a cap hit of $1.758 million into 2025-26. That’s not the end of the world, but it’s fair to wonder if having Atkinson off the team in 2024 is worth the extra cap hit in two years.
Finally, there’s the chance that Atkinson remains on the Flyers, which might end up being the smartest choice Danny Briere could make. The worst case scenario? The Flyers eat his $5.875 million cap hit for the final year of his deal, as Atkinson continues his poor play from 2023-24 and is borderline unplayable. For a rebuilding team, that’s not the end of the world, and the Flyers wouldn’t have a cap hit to deal with in 2025-26. In a best-case scenario, Atkinson could rebuild his value in the first half by proving he still has some gas left in the tank, and the Flyers could flip him to a contender at the deadline. It would likely be a mid-to-late round draft pick, but you never know.
There are many ways this could go for Cam Atkinson and the Flyers, but it seems as if the Flyers want to come to a decision on this sooner rather than later.
