Sharks decline. Even with 50% retention, a cap dump costs more than that. At the TDL (1/4 of the season remaining), teams retaining 1.5M or so get roughly 4th round picks (Lightning got a 4th for retaining 1.456M on Henrique, Devils got a 4th for retaining 1.125M on Tanev, Philly got a 5th for retaining 1.237M on Hanifin). The Athletic's player cards suggest Atkinson's worth around 1.6M, so at 50% retained he's being overpaid by around 1.3M. The upgrade from pick 194 to pick 177 is not going to get it done. Puckpedia's cap relief calculator suggests 1.3M for a full season is worth pick 63 overall, so a late 2nd/early 3rd. That seems relatively in line with the retention lasting for 4x as long as something that got around a 4th.

Edit: Also, according to Dreger: "the San Jose Sharks have trade interest, but Atkinson, who has a 10-team no-trade list, is not keen on a move to the team."

Good insight. I think also it is important to consider the Flyers are a rebuilding team and can easily just buy him out if they want to and it not effect there cap much next year. They are not going to trade a pick that's in the first 4 rounds to get out of it otherwise they just eat the contract. Also SJ does need to reach the cap floor and this is an easy way to do it by getting a veteran on a one year deal that they can flip at the deadline to get more value if he plays well. So its really a low risk high reward scenario for them.

I still don't see them taking it. Grabbing a guy at 2.9M doesn't help them too much in reaching the floor. This is essentially the equivalent of a 7th for taking on a bad contract (Sound Of Hockey's pick value chart values pick 194 as 1.41 and 177 as 2.16. The gap between those is 0.75 which is the value of pick 209). Sure, the Flyers are rebuilding, but if they want cap flexibility it's going to cost them more than that. They might be able to reduce the price a bit since the Sharks do have the potential to flip him if he plays well, but I really don't see any scenario where it's close to this cheap.

I have to agree and personally would rather take the full cap hit and a 2nd.

It's weird enough that someone's agreeing with me on something. The same person agreeing with me twice in five minutes on different things is even weirder!

Did I? Damn I’m going to have to find a post to bash you on next