This past season was a tough one for Flyers winger Cam Atkinson who found himself a healthy scratch on several occasions while underachieving offensively. Meanwhile, it was even worse for goaltender Cal Petersen who spent most of the season in the minors and struggled in his brief action with Philadelphia.
On top of that, cap space is at a premium for the Flyers as CapFriendly projects them to have barely $500K in regular cap room this summer which isn’t enough to try to make any sort of upgrade to their roster. Accordingly, GM Daniel Briere acknowledged to NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman that the team is considering all of its options when it comes to opening up cap space, including buying out the veterans when the window to do so opens up later this month. However, no decision has been made at this time.
Atkinson is coming off the quietest full season of his career. The 35-year-old notched just 13 goals and 15 assists in 70 games while seeing his ice time drop to a little under 16 minutes a night. While he was a legitimate top-line threat earlier in his career, he has become a secondary scorer but one that carries a hefty price tag with a $5.875MM AAV. That would be a difficult contract to move without incentivizing a team to take it on which makes the idea of a buyout more palatable. They’d save a little over $3.5MM for 2024-25 if they went this route with Atkinson but would add a $1.76MM dead cap charge to their books in 2025-26.
As for Petersen, he was acquired in a salary dump from Los Angeles this summer. At one point, it looked like he could start as the backup and allow Samuel Ersson to spend more time in the minors but instead, the 29-year-old was waived and spent most of the year in Lehigh Valley. He didn’t have a particularly strong campaign there either, posting a 2.71 GAA and a .902 SV% in 28 regular season appearances. Meanwhile, in five games with the Flyers, Petersen notched a .864 SV% while allowing 18 goals in five games. A buyout for him would reduce his cap charge from $5MM to just $1MM for 2024-25 but add $2MM onto the 2025-26 books.
It’s worth noting that Philadelphia does have other cap room available to them as Ryan Ellis is set to remain on LTIR for next season, freeing up a potential $6.25MM in extra flexibility. However, going deep into that would prevent them from banking any in-season cap room so ideally, they’d like to try to avoid it.
There’s also the uncertainty with Ryan Johansen’s situation. Briere indicated to Kimelman that there’s no clarity yet when it comes to the center:
He’s going through some kind of rehab. He had an injection; claims he has a hip injury. At this point, honestly I’m not too sure where it’s at. We’re not sure if he’s going to need surgery, or if he’s going to be ready for camp. We don’t really know at this point.
Johansen has one year left on his deal with the Flyers being responsible for a $4MM cap charge. If he’s unavailable to play at all, he would then be LTIR-eligible, giving them more wiggle room if they opted to use that. However, the fact there is some lingering uncertainty about Johansen’s health takes a buyout off the table as injured players can’t be bought out, making Petersen and Atkinson the potentially viable options on that front.
The first buyout window will open up two days after the Stanley Cup ends and run through June 30th so while there is still time for Briere to make a decision on what to do with Atkinson and Petersen, he’ll have to move quickly once the window opens if they do indeed decide to part with one or both of them.