Cam Atkinson was a relatively well known player around the league before this season started, but not to the extent he’s seen this campaign. Due to his fantastic year he’s currently having, added with the Blue Jackets being top of the NHL, his stock is steadily rising into conversations about possible postseason awards.
Cam Atkinson and His Career Year
The Numbers
It’s easy to look at the 15 goals and 35 points, good for sixth in the league, and state the obvious fact that he’s playing out of his mind. His point production and end-to-end, fast skating style compliment the philosophy in Columbus perfectly, so it’s really no surprise to see this happening.
When you take into account that last season was his highest scoring season of his career at 27 goals and 53 points, it starts to register just how impressive this really is. He’s on pace to break all of his career highs in every measurable statistic, including bagging 20-plus goals in four straight seasons, an impressive feat for a team not known for it’s offensive ability before this season.
He’s not only having a great season in even strength hockey, but he’s played a pivotal role on the best powerplay in the NHL. He has already tied his career high in powerplay goals with seven, and set a new career high in powerplay points with 17. This is all being done in just 33 games this season.
More Than Just Numbers
It’s a hard thing to do to bring up a point to most new age hockey fans about what a player brings outside of stats and analytics. But this exact argument is one that should be made for the likes of Atkinson. He’ll never be a loud or outspoken leader, but rather a leader by example. And for a young team and market hungry (in relation to the rest of the league) for success and playoff hockey, that’s an invaluable asset that cannot be understated.
Atkinson, who fits the model of forward that head coach John Tortorella likes to a tee, has bought into the system. And when you get a player like Atkinson buying what the coach is selling and reaping these kinds of rewards, it’s like dominoes throughout the rest of the team and organization. Everyone realizes they can do the same, and they have been.
The fast skating, less than intimidating (5’7″, 173 lbs) forward has proven to be a fantastic player and leader. And for someone who was selected in just the sixth round (157th overall) of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, he’s proven himself to be nothing short of a late round steal of a pick.
Predictions For His Finish
When predicting how many goals and assists Atkinson will finish with, it’s easy to just figure out the ratio and multiply by 82, but that’s not what we’re going to do.
Goals: Atkinson will go on another hot streak, or two, of goalscoring this point of the season to the end. Due to this, he’ll easily break his career high in goals of 27, which he set last year. The prediction for final goals on the season will be slightly above the pace he’s on right now and he’ll bag himself a cool 34 goals.
Assists: Atkinson currently has 20 assists in 33 games this season, which puts him on pace to finish with 49-50 assists on the season. If he keeps this play up throughout the season and gets that number, he’ll likely be in serious consideration for the Hart Trophy. He’ll probably cool off a bit at some point and the likely range he’ll finish with is somewhere between 38-42 assists. We’re going to go smack dab in the middle of that and say Atkinson will finish with 40. This would crush his career high of 26, set last season.
With the predictions made above of 34 goals and 40 assists, this will get Atkinson an impressive 74 total points for the season. This would, yet again, be a career high for Atkinson. But when you look at the way he’s playing, and the skill set he has at his disposal, it’s by no means out of his reach. Whether or not he gets these numbers, enjoy the ride, folks!
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