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Cam Atkinson To Retire

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After a 13-season NHL career, veteran winger Cam Atkinson is hanging up his skates. The Blue Jackets announced Wednesday that they’ll be signing him to a one-day contract and will officially honor his retirement on Oct. 16 against the Avalanche. He’s expected to join Columbus in a front-office capacity at some point down the road, but that announcement won’t be coming now, he told Aaron Portzline of The Athletic.

Atkinson is one of the better draft steals in Blue Jackets franchise history, coming to them in the sixth round in 2008. He signed with Columbus three years later after a great run at Boston College and made his NHL debut in 2011-12, although it took him another two years to fully establish himself on the active roster. After going up and down between Columbus and AHL Springfield, Atkinson broke out into a top-six role for the 2013-14 season. He finished third on the team with 21 goals and fourth with 40 points in 79 appearances, helping fuel the Jackets to a then-franchise record 43-win season that resulted in their second-ever playoff appearance.

The undersized but skilled Atkinson remained a fixture in Columbus’ top six for the balance of the decade. He was a two-time All-Star, including his career-best 41-goal, 69-point effort in 2018-19 – leading the team in goals in the year they orchestrated one of the most drastic upsets in league history by sweeping the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Lightning in the first round for their first series win in franchise history. After the COVID-shortened 2021 season, Atkinson had totaled a 213-189–402 scoring line in 627 games for Columbus, still holding up as the second-leading goalscorer and point-getter in the Jackets’ record books behind Rick Nash.

After Atkinson’s points per game production peaked at 0.86 in that career year, he only managed to produce at about a 0.60 pace over the next two years. That soft decline led Columbus to ship Atkinson to the Flyers in the 2021 offseason in a one-for-one swap for Jakub Voráček. In hindsight, it ended up being a bit of a lose-lose endeavor. Atkinson seemed to pop back into form with a 23-27–50 effort in 73 games in 2021-22, but a neck injury sustained in the following training camp ended up costing him the entire 2022-23 season and accelerating his decline. He had just 28 points in 70 games for Philly upon returning to play in 2023-24, leading the club to buy out the final year of the seven-year, $41.13MM extension he signed with Columbus back in 2017.

Atkinson became an unrestricted free agent a year ahead of schedule and signed on with the Lightning on a one-year deal worth $900K. The bounceback he was looking for never came, though. He struggled to stick in the lineup and played sparingly when he did dress, averaging just nine minutes per game across 39 contests. After finishing the year with a 4-5–9 scoring line, the Lightning were quick to say Atkinson wouldn’t be brought back.

Atkinson told Portzline that he received professional tryout offers this summer but declined them, saying he essentially made up his mind when he made his final regular-season appearance for Tampa. He ends his career with a 253-236–489 scoring line in 809 appearances, including a -11 rating while averaging north of 17 minutes per game. We at Pro Hockey Rumors congratulate Atkinson on a lengthy and successful pro career and wish him the best in whatever comes next.

Image courtesy of Kim Klement-Imagn Images.

Lightning’s Scott Sabourin Suspended Four Games, J.J. Moser Suspended Two Games

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10/6/25 5:35 PM: The NHL has also issued punishments to the Lightning organization and Lightning head coach Jon Cooper “for their actions culminating in the events” of Saturday’s contest, according to an official announcement.

The Lightning have been fined $100K, while Cooper himself has been fined $25K. Both fines were levied by the NHL’s Hockey Operations department and will go to charitable causes.

10/6/25 5:15 PM: Tampa Bay Lightning forward Scott Sabourin has been suspended four games for roughing committed against Florida Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced today.

The play in question happened early in the Lightning’s preseason game Saturday in Florida. Sabourin delivered a clean check on Ekblad behind the net, but then after the check he, as the Department of Player Safety termed it in their ruling video, “delivered an un-gloved sucker punch to the head” of Ekblad. They noted a few key aspects that prompted such a significant suspension, which has been levied on top of the game misconduct Sabourin was already assessed.

Firstly, the Department of Player Safety noted that Sabourin delivered “a forceful, ungloved punch directly to Ekblad’s face.” They also took into account the previous history between the two clubs and the situation of the game to come to the conclusion that Sabourin’s actions were “intentional” and done “for the purpose of retribution and message-sending.”

Sabourin’s suspension is notable because he is not a full-time NHL player. Since the start of the 2022-23 season, Sabourin has played in just four NHL games and was originally reassigned to the Lightning’s AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, on Oct. 1 before he was called up on Oct. 4 for the team’s preseason contest against the Panthers.

Since he is likely to be back in Syracuse to begin the season – and for an indefinite period moving forward – this suspension will likely not have a short-term impact on Sabourin’s ability to dress for games. This four-game suspension does not apply in the AHL, meaning Sabourin must be on an NHL roster for four games in order for the suspension to be considered served.

Seeing as Sabourin has just four NHL games played over the last two seasons, it’s entirely possible that the 33-year-old AHL bruiser could face a long wait until his NHL game.

This is not Sabourin’s first time receiving supplemental discipline in his professional career, though it is his first NHL suspension. In 2020, he was fined $1.9K for unsportsmanlike conduct when he squirted an opposing player with a water bottle from the bench. In the AHL, Sabourin also has some disciplinary history: he was assessed an automatic one-game suspension after receiving an instigator penalty in 2017, suspended one game in 2021, and three games in 2024.

Sabourin is not the only Lightning player who is set to miss time due to conduct stemming from the same game. Defenseman J.J. Moser also had a hearing today with the Department of Player Safety, and was levied a two-game suspension. In Moser’s case, he has earned this suspension for boarding Panthers forward Jesper Boqvist. He was, like Sabourin, also assessed a game misconduct for the play.

The play in question occurred late in the first period, when Boqvist went to retrieve a puck in the offensive zone. Moser closed in on the Panthers forward and delivered a hit that the Department of Player Safety said drove “a defenseless Boqvist dangerously into the wall.”

The Department noted that the play was not a result of a sudden movement by Boqvist that changed a would-be legal body check into an illegal one – instead they noted that there was a level of intentionality from Moser in the play. Moser has not been fined or suspended thusfar in his NHL career, which alongside the nature of the play itself may have contributed in his lighter suspension compared to Sabourin.

Photo courtesy of Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports

Tampa Bay Lightning Claim Curtis Douglas

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have claimed a towering forward off the waiver wire. According to an announcement from his now-former team, the Utah Mammoth, Curtis Douglas is headed to Florida.

It’s readily apparent that the Lightning had one thing in mind by claiming Douglas. The former 106th overall pick of the 2018 NHL Draft stands at 6’9″, 243lbs, being one of the biggest forwards in the AHL.

Despite being drafted by the Dallas Stars, Douglas’ professional career began with the Ottawa Senators’ AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators, on an amateur tryout agreement to end the 2020-21 campaign. After scoring one goal and four points in 11 games, he signed a two-year, $1.675MM entry-level deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs the following offseason.

Since then, the only other time he’s been mentioned in the news before today is when the Maple Leafs traded him to the now-defunct Arizona Coyotes toward the beginning of the 2022-23 season for defenseman Conor Timmins.

Including his brief stint with the baby Senators, Douglas has played in parts of five AHL seasons with the Toronto Marlies and Tucson Roadrunners, scoring 37 goals and 97 points in 261 games. In an oddly impressive statistic, Douglas has accrued 508 PIMs over that stretch, averaging out to two minor penalties a game, or one major penalty every three games.

Lightning Players Face Fines, DOPS Hearings After Saturday Contest

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Florida Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad left last night’s chaotic preseason contest against the Tampa Bay Lightning early, after just 41 seconds of ice time. His removal from the game came just after Lightning forward Scott Sabourin – a longtime AHL bruiser – delivered a big hit (and a punch to the head) of Ekblad. There has been no further update on Ekblad’s status and whether he suffered an injury, though as preseason games between rivals this preseason have featured unusually intense physical play, it would be no surprise to learn Ekblad was removed from the game for precautionary reasons.

  • The NHL Department of Player Safety announced initial supplemental disciplinary actions resulting from yesterday’s violent preseason contest between the Panthers and the Lightning. Defenseman J.J. Moser will have a hearing for boarding Jesper Boqvist, Sabourin will have a hearing for his aforementioned hit (and more) on Ekblad, while Gage Goncalves and Roman Schmidt will each be fined the maximum-allowable amount under the CBA ($3,125 and $2,098.52, respectively) for cross-checking. The dates and times of Moser and Sabourin’s respective hearings have not yet been determined.

Training Camp Cuts: 10/4/25

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Less than 72 hours remain until opening night rosters are due on Monday evening. Teams are down to their final few rounds of cuts as a result, but some have more work to do than others. We’re keeping tabs on all of today’s demotions here as clubs near their final 23-man form to open the season:

Buffalo Sabres (per team announcement)

D Radim Mrtka (to AHL Rochester)
F Noah Ostlund (to AHL Rochester)

New Jersey Devils (per team announcement)

F Thomas Bordeleau (to AHL Utica pending waiver clearance)
F Angus Crookshank (to AHL Utica pending waiver clearance)
F Brian Halonen (to AHL Utica pending waiver clearance)
F Zack MacEwen (to AHL Utica pending waiver clearance)
D Dmitry Osipov (to AHL Utica)
D Colton White (to AHL Utica pending waiver clearance)

Pittsburgh Penguins (per team announcement)

D Alexander Alexeyev (to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton pending waiver clearance)
F Tristan Broz (to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton)
F Robby Fabbri (released from PTO)
D Ryan Graves (to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton pending waiver clearance)
F Rafael Harvey-Pinard (to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton pending waiver clearance)
F Avery Hayes (to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton)
F Bokondji Imama (to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton pending waiver clearance)
G Sergei Murashov (to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton)
D Owen Pickering (to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton)
F Samuel Poulin (to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton pending waiver clearance)

Utah Mammoth (per team announcement)

F Cameron Hebig (to AHL Tucson pending waiver clearance)
G Matt Villalta (to AHL Tucson after clearing waivers)

Tampa Bay Lightning (per team announcement)

G Brandon Halverson (to AHL Syracuse after clearing waivers)

Vancouver Canucks (per team announcement)

F Nils Aman (to AHL Abbotsford after clearing waivers)
F Max Sasson (to AHL Abbotsford)
G Nikita Tolopilo (to AHL Abbotsford)

Winnipeg Jets (per team announcement)

G Dom DiVincentiis (to AHL Manitoba)

Lightning Recall Six Players

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Waivers: 10/3/25

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Twelve new names are on Friday’s waiver list, Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports relays. Out of the 22 names waived yesterday, three were claimed: Daemon Hunt heads from Columbus to Minnesota, Cole Schwindt from Vegas to Florida, and Ilya Solovyov from Calgary to Colorado.

Today’s placements are as follows:

Boston Bruins

F Patrick Brown
D Michael Callahan
F Georgii Merkulov
D Victor Söderström
F Riley Tufte

Carolina Hurricanes

F Givani Smith

Tampa Bay Lightning

G Brandon Halverson

Toronto Maple Leafs

F David Kämpf
D William Villeneuve

Utah Mammoth

G Matt Villalta

Vancouver Canucks

F Nils Åman

Washington Capitals

F Sheldon Rempal

Lightning “Quietly Extended” Jon Cooper This Offseason

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Coaches on expiring contracts have been angling for new deals ahead of the regular season. Up in Alberta, the Flames’ Ryan Huska and the Oilers’ Kris Knoblauch have both signed multi-year extensions this week.

One name who won’t be the subject of an upcoming announcement is Lightning bench boss Jon Cooper. That’s because he put pen to paper on an extension with the Bolts over the offseason without a team announcement, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports. It’s unclear how many seasons his new deal covers, but the 2025-26 campaign won’t be his last with Tampa, barring a surprising collapse.

It’s the second extension Cooper has signed in as many years. His previous deal was set to expire following last season, but he inked a one-year extension in May 2024. This one is of more importance, quieting brief speculation from earlier in the summer that Cooper might have wanted an option for a quick out, explaining why he only signed a one-year deal last year. His relationship with Mammoth owner Ryan Smith led to rumors that Utah may be his next stop. That may still be the case a few years down the road, but for now, Tampa will remain the only NHL home Cooper’s ever known.

Cooper is a unicorn in today’s NHL. As the league-average coaching tenure dips below three seasons, Cooper enters his 14th season as the Lightning’s head coach, having taken over for Guy Boucher in the 2012-13 season. His resume speaks for itself – four conference champions, two Stanley Cup championships, and a 572-306-83 (.638) regular-season record. This year will mark his 1,000th NHL game as a head coach, and at the end of the year, he’ll sit fourth all-time on the list of most games coached with a single franchise. His number will be 1,043 in April 2026, trailing only Barry Trotz’s 1,196 games with the Predators, Lindy Ruff’s 1,247 games with the Sabres, and Al Arbour’s 1,500 games with the Islanders.

Yet after three consecutive first-round losses, there was a small fire burning under his seat. Today’s news should extinguish it. There’s a multitude of reasons for optimism in Florida’s more northerly NHL market this year, boasting a deeper forward group than they’ve been working with for the past couple of seasons.

That leaves Ruff in Buffalo as the only coach on an expiring contract entering the campaign, LeBrun reports.

Image courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images.

Waivers: 10/2/25

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There are 22 new names on the waiver wire today, PuckPedia reports. Everyone on the wire yesterday passed through aside from goaltender Pheonix Copley, who’s heading to the Lightning from the Kings.

Calgary Flames

F Rory Kerins
G Ivan Prosvetov
D Ilya Solovyov

Columbus Blue Jackets

D Daemon Hunt

Edmonton Oilers

D Cam Dineen
D Riley Stillman

Pittsburgh Penguins

D Sebastian Aho
F Danton Heinen
D Philip Kemp
F Joona Koppanen
G Filip Larsson
F Valtteri Puustinen

Seattle Kraken

F Ben Meyers
F Mitchell Stephens

Utah Mammoth

F Ben McCartney
D Scott Perunovich

Vancouver Canucks

F Vitali Kravtsov

Vegas Golden Knights

D Dylan Coghlan
F Tanner Laczynski
F Raphael Lavoie
D Jaycob Megna
F Cole Schwindt

Heinen, Kerins, and Kravtsov jump out as the most notable skaters from the group. Heinen is one of the first veteran surprises to reach the wire this fall. The pending UFA costs $2.25MM against the cap and was a speculative trade candidate as the rebuilding Penguins look to shed their veterans on expiring deals. If he clears, he’ll still count for $1.1MM against Pittsburgh’s cap. It’s not as if he’s coming off a catastrophic 2024-25 season. He made 79 appearances split between the Canucks and Penguins, recording a 9-20–29 scoring line while averaging 13:27 per game. Those are all a few ticks below his career averages, but still serviceable bottom-six production for a reasonable price. He may not fit into the Penguins’ plans, but it wouldn’t be too surprising to see him claimed despite his cap impact.

Kerins has been a high-ceiling name in the Flames’ system for the past couple of years with quite strong AHL showings. He got his first taste of NHL action last year in a five-game call-up, looking like he belonged with four assists and a +3 rating while averaging 12:14 per game. The 5’10” pivot isn’t a natural fit in a fourth-line role, though, and Calgary doesn’t have an open spot for him in its top nine. He’s a pending RFA without arbitration rights on a two-way deal with a league minimum cap hit – prime conditions for a claim – and had 33 goals and 61 points in 63 AHL games last year.

Kravtsov not making it to the final couple of days of camp is a surprise. Selected No. 9 overall in 2018, he was on the Canucks’ reserve list after he departed the NHL to return to Russia in 2023. He had a great showing for Traktor Chelyabinsk in the Kontinental Hockey League last year, leading the team with 27 goals in 66 games while adding 31 assists for 58 points. That was enough to generate mutual interest between the Canucks and Kravtsov to resume their relationship, and he signed a one-year, two-way deal in August. He’s due to be a Group VI unrestricted free agent next summer if he doesn’t hit 16 NHL games this year.

As for goalie-needy teams, Prosvetov might warrant some consideration after being passed over for Calgary’s backup job in favor of Devin Cooley. The 26-year-old has 24 NHL starts under his belt and was excellent in the KHL last year, managing a .920 SV% and 2.32 GAA in 38 games for CSKA Moscow.

Lightning Claim Pheonix Copley Off Waivers From Kings

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The Lightning have claimed goaltender Pheonix Copley off waivers from the Kings, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.

Copley, 33, had signed a one-year, one-way, league minimum extension with L.A. in June to continue serving as a No. 3/4 option for them this season. The longtime fringe NHLer has spent the last three years in the Kings organization, including a one-off 2022-23 campaign that saw him emerge as the Kings’ starter for a bit until Joonas Korpisalo was acquired at the trade deadline. Since recording a 24-6-3 record and .903 SV% in 37 appearances that year, though, the Alaska native has only nine NHL games to his name.

Part of the lack of playing time was due to an ACL injury that ended his 2023-24 season in December, but he’d already slipped to third on the Kings’ depth chart by that point after regressing to a .870 SV% through eight starts. He ended up on waivers at the beginning of last year and cleared, spending the vast majority of the season in AHL Ontario aside from making one early-season NHL relief appearance. The 6’4″ netminder was serviceable in the starting role for Ontario, making 42 appearances with a .904 SV%, 2.49 GAA, two shutouts, and a 24-17-1 record.

The Lightning, in need of goaltending depth, make sure he won’t clear waivers this time around. They’ve been dealing with limited availability from star starter Andrei Vasilevskiy in camp, although Erik Erlendsson of Lightning Insider reported today that he’s likely to make his preseason debut this weekend. Even if Vasilevskiy’s health wasn’t a concern, the Lightning were likely on the lookout for another depth option between the pipes.

They have one of the more underwhelming No. 2 options in the league in Jonas Johansson, who’s only managed a .892 SV% and 3.27 GAA behind a stout Tampa defense over the past two years. The backup position in Tampa hasn’t been much of a concern with Vasilevskiy shouldering a 60-start workload, but with the club looking to lighten the pressure on him this year, it makes sense to bring in another experienced option who might be an upgrade on Johansson.

Copley wasn’t going to be an NHL factor for the Kings unless injury struck their NHL tandem of Darcy Kuemper and Anton Forsberg, although that’s a likely outcome given their histories. They have just four goalies signed in the organization without him, and one, 19-year-old Carter George, is still ineligible for a full-time AHL assignment and has already reported to OHL Owen Sound for the year. That leaves 25-year-old Erik Portillo, who struggled to the tune of a .889 SV% in 24 AHL contests last year, as their lone recall option. As such, expect a free-agent pickup or corresponding waiver claim to try to give them more insurance and more cushion for Portillo in the minors.

If the Lightning begin the season with three goalies, they’d only be able to carry two extra skaters instead of three. In any event, the claim doesn’t put them in any sort of cap bind. They’ll have the flexibility to open the season with a full 23-player roster with Nick Paul counting against the cap on injured reserve if they choose. Paul underwent surgery last month and is expected to make his season debut in early November.

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