PTO season is in full force with training camps roughly a week and a half away and we’ve already seen several veterans ink tryout agreements. The latest to get in on the fun is Calgary as the Flames announced (Twitter link) that they have inked center Cody Eakin to a tryout deal.
The 31-year-old spent the last two seasons in Buffalo while playing in their bottom six. Last season, Eakin recorded four goals and eight assists in 69 games with the Sabres while averaging 13:35 per game. He took a regular turn on the penalty kill and that’s likely the role that Calgary would be wanting him to play if he’s able to crack their roster. Eakin also won 56% of his faceoffs last season which was a single-season career-high.
Eakin has 701 career NHL games under his belt across five different organizations with 110 goals and 146 assists to show for it. While he isn’t the 40-point player he was with Vegas in 2018-19, he can still contribute on a fourth line and there’s a pretty good fit with the Flames; on the surface, it would appear as if there’s a decent chance that he could land a contract from this. He’d be signing for the minimum of $750K or close to it and CapFriendly pegs Calgary as having a little over $2.1MM in cap room so they wouldn’t have to move anyone out to sign him.
It’s worth noting that the Flames are one of the teams that still have a restricted free agent to re-sign in middleman Adam Ruzicka. Eakin’s addition to their camp roster will put him in direct competition with the spot that Ruzicka would be battling for. This is the type of addition that might serve as a motivator for Rucizka’s camp to put pen to paper on an agreement to ensure that he won’t be playing catch-up when the preseason gets underway later this month.
CapFriendly was the first to report that Eakin was signing a PTO with the Flames.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Hard to imagine him not making the club if he takes league minimum on a one-way deal. He’s a solid 4th line centre. Skates will, great face off guy, good PKer, plenty of experience.
Fantastic lockerroom guy. The Flames had a huge turnover to their roster. They could use some glue in the room.
I’ve become a fan of the Flames organization (not a fan of the team per se; I like the way they’re structured and run). This could prove to be a much better signing than many expect.