A veteran scorer is heading to the Sunshine State.
On Tuesday, the Tampa Bay Lightning signed forward Cam Atkinson to a one-year contract. The deal will carry a $900,000 cap hit through the 2024-25 season.
The move comes just four days after the Philadelphia Flyers bought out the final year of Atkinson’s seven-year contract that he initially signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets in November 2017. The cap hit on his deal was $5.875 million a year. This contract is the first since his entry-level deal where Atkinson has made less than $1 million a year.
The Riverside, Connecticut native returned to action this past season after missing the entire 2022-23 campaign after receiving neck surgery. He ended up playing 70 games, scoring 13 goals and 15 assists for a total of 28 points, as the Flyers narrowly missed the playoffs. It is the first time in Atkinson’s career that he failed to reach the 30-point mark in a normal season.
He spent most of his career with the Blue Jackets, the team that took him in the sixth round, 157th overall, in the 2008 NHL Draft. After 10 seasons in Columbus, he was dealt to Philadelphia in July 2021 for Jakub Voracek.
Atkinson is a two-time NHL All-Star, representing the Blue Jackets at the 2017 and 2019 All-Star Games. In 770 NHL games, the 35-year-old has scored 249 goals and 231 assists, including 26 points in 35 playoff games, the last of which coming with Columbus in 2020.
With the signing, Tampa Bay has 41 players under standard player contracts for the 2024-25 campaign. The deal seemed necessary for general manager Julien BriesBois, as the Lightning needed to try and fill a scoring spot that was left behind when longtime captain Steven Stamkos signed a four-year contract with the Nashville Predators.
