Columbus Blue Jackets Star Cam Atkinson May Be About to Hit Ceiling
Similarly to his Columbus Blue Jackets, Cam Atkinson exploded into the spotlight of the National Hockey League this season. His career year continued a trend of consistent and steady improvement since coming to the league, but how long can Camsanity continue?
Since arriving in the NHL in 2011, Cam Atkinson has continued to improve, especially on the offensive end. The Columbus Blue Jackets forward netted a career-high 35 goals, but breaking personal records is nothing new to Cam. He’s actually done it every single year.
In the 2011-2012 season, Cam scored seven goals. Nine goals for him the next season. 21 the year after that. 22 two years ago. And 27 goals last season. It’s just become expected that he’ll one-up himself.
But how long can he realistically do that? Can he be like Sidney Crosby and basically not age? Or is he about to hit his ceiling?
In all honesty, we have no way of knowing. But what’s the fun in that? What would our world be if we couldn’t make stupid assumptions and predictions? Well, now that I think about it…
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What More Can Cam Do?
Cam is about to turn 28 (Monday, to be exact) so he should be in the midst of his prime, at least according to a University of British Columbia study on age-related player performance. The study used data spanning from 1997 to 2012 to conclude that NHL forwards peak around the age of 26 and usually continue that play until 32.
That is for the more ‘normal’ forwards though. The case of “elite players,” as the study puts it, their time ranges are completely different. Elite players actually peak later than others, have longer peaks, and have a slower age-related decline.
If you want to classify Cam as elite or not, that’s up to you. But I will. Personally, I feel he is in the top echelon of forwards in the league. Not on the level of Sidney Crosby, but Crosby isn’t elite. He’s out of this world. The “normal” elite forwards are more of Cam’s group.
If he does stay to the course of the elite players that were in the study, Atkinson is just hitting his prime performance and he can last for half a decade easily. It’s probably wishful thinking that Cam will be scoring at will when he’s 33, but I’m just going off the study. And his constant improvement. The Columbus Blue Jackets have an elite scorer on their hands for some time to come.
Cam has shown he’s a reliable scoring threat and he hasn’t shown any sign of slowing down, but quite the opposite. So let’s not doubt Camsanity; let’s embrace Camsanity.