The Philadelphia Flyers are planning to buy out the final season of Cam Atkinson’s seven-year, $41.125MM contract, the team shared. Philadelphia will carry a $2.358MM cap hit this season, and a $1.758MM cap hit next season, as a result of this buyout – accumulating $1.759MM in total savings over the $5.875MM cap hit that Atkinson was due this year. The Flyers will also get out from under Atkinson’s modified no-trade-clause, which allowed the veteran winger to submit a 10-team no-trade list.

This buyout brings a quiet end to Atkinson’s three-year stretch in Philadelphia. He was plenty productive two sesaons ago, posting 23 goals and 50 points in 73 games – his highest scoring since 2019. But Atkinson was forced out of the entirety of the 2022-23 season with a neck injury and struggled to rekindle his spark this year. He fell to a measly 13 goals and 28 points in 70 games. On the back of lagging performances, Atkinson slipped all year, ultimately earning multiple healthy scratches in the season’s second half.

Benchings are a heavy fall for Atkinson, who spent nearly a decade locked into the Columbus Blue Jackets top-six earlier in his career. He posted at least 20 goals in every season between 2013 and 2019 – including a career-high 41 goals and 69 points in 80 games during the 2018-19 season. But injuries have never been Atkinson’s friend – with a string of lower-body injuries limiting his early career and a nagging right-ankle sprain ultimately cutting his 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons in half. With the writing of an aging veteran on the wall, Columbus flipped Atkinson to the Flyers in July of 2021, acquiring Jakub Voracek – another veteran winger plagued by injuries.

And while Atkinson will now enter the free agent market with still winds, there seems to still be interest around the league. The San Jose Sharks were reportedly interested in trading for Atkinson just two weeks ago, though his trade protection kept him from going to a Sharks team that seems set for another down year. San Jose surely would’ve preferred Atkinson’s near-$6MM price tag, as they try to reach the cap floor, but will now get a chance to negotiate openly with the 12-year veteran. Atkinson hasn’t found much success over his career, playing in just 35 career postseason games, but he offers the leadership of a veteran with 770 career games – a presence that could be invaluable to young teams like the Sharks.