The narrative coming into this abridged season was that Cam Atkinson needed to return back to production levels that haven't been seen since he was playing with Artemi Panarin on the wing.
Atkinson himself would hem and haw at the fact that he played very well without Panarin on the other wing. He was right. Atkinson had very productive years without Panarin and saw improvements when the former Russian Blue Jacket was on his wing.
Now that the prognostication has stopped and the games are being played. Atkinson has not yet lived up to his lofty expectations. So what exactly is happening with him?
Caved In
The first thing you'll notice with Atkinson's play this year is just how poorly he is controlling play this season.
Atkinson himself has never been a fantastic play driver. He is someone that can play with your top players and stick with them but isn't going to be the sole manufacturer of offense. He has done well with Panarin, Dubois, Saad amongst others.
When it comes to this season, having played a little bit with everyone (which by itself could be a problem) Atkinson is getting absolutely caved in. Not just along with his teammates, he is doing roughly 6% points worse than the rest of the team. That includes both blocked and unblocked shots.
Making matters even worse that the shots are coming against, his PDO is absolutely porous as well. You would think that a lot of it could be attributed to poor goaltending against and there are some factors that say that it could be the case but the on-ice shooting percentage is remarkably low when he is on the ice.
That could mean one of two things. He could be having a poor offensive output due to percentages going against him. Which given some of the misses he has had of late, could be the case. Or it could mean that Atkinson and the shots he is giving up against aren't putting him in a good position to contribute offensively.
Deployment Changes?
So how do you turn this around for Atkinson without having to make any other large changes around him? The first could be a change in deployment. He is currently starting equal parts in the offensive and defensive zone. In his best season (though with Panarni for a majority), Atkinson started 2/3 of the time in the offensive zone. It minimized any need for defensive work and allowed him to be a weapon to be utilized.
In his next best offensive season in regard to point output, he saw just over half of his time in the defensive zone. Provided that season was nearly five years ago and Atkinson isn't the same player.
Now, this is all to say that none of this is definitive. We're only 10+ games into the season. It is a large enough sample to allow for tinkering to take place. The first thing to do with Atkinson is immediately start using him as an offensive weapon rather than an all-around player.
He may still have that in his arsenal and it could end up being a small slump to begin the year, to help mitigate it all, using him on offensive zone draws could do wonders for his confidence no matter who he is playing with. Without giving up on the player, they need to use him properly and use him in a more measured way. This is a way to jump-start the player without reinventing the wheel.
