It has been known that the Calgary Flames would like to add another forward to their group for the 2022-23 season, and they may have found just that in Cody Eakin.
On Sunday evening, Elliotte Friedman tweeted that the Flames have invited Eakin to camp later this month on a professional tryout offer (PTO). The 31-year-old spent the 2021-22 season with the Buffalo Sabres, recording four goals and 12 points in 69 games.
Eakin has suited up for a total of 701 career games at the NHL level during stints with the Washington Capitals, Dallas Stars, Vegas Golden Knights, Winnipeg Jets and the Sabres. During that time, he has amassed 110 goals and 256 points. Additionally, he has played in 50 postseason games, scoring eight goals and 19 points.
Throughout his career and particularly in recent seasons, Eakin has been a major contributor to his team’s penalty killing unit, something that the Flames will certainly have him help with if he is able to earn a deal. On top of that, he had a 56 per cent success rate in faceoffs last season, which was a career high.
From a money standpoint, the Flames have the room to sign Eakin at this point in time if they wish to do so, as they have just over $2.1 million in cap space. Given the fact he has lasted on the market this long, he would almost certainly accept a one-year, $750,000 deal, which would still leave the Flames with some additional cap.
That additional cap would prove important, as they still have one remaining restricted free agent to get signed in Adam Ruzicka. He shouldn’t command much more than Eakin given his inexperience at the NHL level, meaning we may indeed see both players on the Flames roster for the 2022-23 season. That, of course, is entirely dependent on how good of a camp Eakin has.
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