COLUMBUS, Ohio — As the Columbus Blue Jackets were set to make their sixth-round pick in the 2008 NHL Draft, one of the club’s former scouts, Rob Riley, heard snickering among his colleagues at their table on the draft floor. Riley had gone to bat for a 5-foot-8 forward from Connecticut, and the rest of the scouts weren’t buying it.
Thankfully, then-general manager Scott Howson and director of amateur scouting, Paul Castron, listened to Riley’s pleadings.
That player was Cam Atkinson, who signed a one-day contract with the Blue Jackets on Thursday and announced his retirement from the NHL after a 13-season, 809-game career with Columbus, the Philadelphia Flyers, and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“Scott called me over for one last chat before we made the pick, and he said, “Rob, can this guy compete?’” Riley told The Athletic. “And I said, ‘Scott, he competes to score as hard as anybody in this draft class.
“There were three or four guys at our table who were really snickering and joking about his size, and I just sort of let them know what they’d see. I turned them and said, ‘You bastards will see.’ And sure enough, they saw.”
When you’re five inches and 30 pounds lighter than the average NHL player, you simply have to believe in yourself. But you need somebody else to believe in you, too. As Atkinson has noted multiple times throughout his career, and especially on Thursday, that person was Riley.
“Getting to play one game in the NHL is obviously a dream come true for any player,” Atkinson said. “But playing 809 of them … I’m not sure how I got so lucky.
“I honestly want to thank the Blue Jackets for believing in me and taking a chance on me, an undersized kid who went 157th overall on my second year of (draft) eligibility. I tell people that I think I went (sixth) overall, just in the sixth round.”
Cam’s certainly left his mark on our community ❤️@CamAtkinson1389 | #CBJ pic.twitter.com/1ls7roCQmT
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) October 16, 2025
Atkinson, seated next to Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell and flanked by his wife and kids, parents and brothers, fought back emotions repeatedly as he spoke after signing the contract.
He opened his comments by extending well wishes to his former teammate and former Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno, who has taken a leave of absence from the Chicago Blackhawks to be with his family while his 12-year-old daughter, Milana, undergoes follow-up surgery related to her congenital heart disease.
Atkinson then thanked the NHL players he played with and against, and his family, especially his wife, Natalie, and their three kids. There was also a classic “dad” moment.
“I can’t wait to be home with you now and start this next chapter … ” Atkinson started to say, before playfully scolding his son: “Put the gum back in your mouth!”
Atkinson, a fan favorite since he made his debut during the 2011-12 season, also thanked Blue Jackets fans, who have continually supported the franchise despite only once making it to the second round of the playoffs in this, their 25th season in the NHL.
He remembered a night, before tickets went on sale for the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs, when Atkinson and his family were walking from their downtown Columbus condo to a restaurant and noticed a throng of Blue Jackets fans camping outside Nationwide Arena to get a jump on tickets the following day.
Atkinson, at his wife’s suggestion, bought tickets for 10 or 12 fans.
“I keep harping on this, but they’re the best fans in the league,” Atkinson said. “You show up for this team every single night, win or lose. Your love for the city, your team, and its players is unconditional.
“I hope I inspired kids of all ages to use the doubters and the negativity as the fuel for your fire. Prove everybody wrong. You are special. Nobody else will believe unless you do. I hope our teams we had back in 2017 to 2019 inspired young players to start playing. I know we have some of the next great NHL players right here in Columbus, and I hope to be part of their story.”
Played with heart. Fought for glory.
Congratulations, @CamAtkinson1389! pic.twitter.com/7SfcDjXpKw
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) October 16, 2025
Atkinson watched from the bench while the current Blue Jackets took warmups. A few minutes before puck drop, he took the “last lap” of his career, emerging from the Blue Jackets’ bench to take a slow twirl around Nationwide for the last time.
It was such a slow twirl that the Blue Jackets and Avalanche began rushing onto the ice before Atkinson had cleared. Hey, what’s the hurry, right? Atkinson stopped several times along his path to fist-bump fans and members of his family through the glass.
He wore his No. 13 jersey, which was most recently worn in Columbus by the late Johnny Gaudreau. Atkinson and Gaudreau were close friends.
Waddell and Atkinson said a position with the Blue Jackets has been discussed, but nothing has been determined yet. Waddell encouraged Atkinson to enjoy the next while with his family, the first year he hasn’t played competitive hockey since before he was a teenager.
Riley, now an amateur scout for the Avalanche, had hoped to be in the crowd on Thursday, he said. But duty called. He was preparing for a trip to Boston for a weekend series between Boston U. and Michigan State. Yes, he’s looking for the next Cam Atkinson.
What drew him to Atkinson, he said, was the “confidence, the cockiness and the arrogance” he played with, despite his humble nature off the ice. Professional arrogance, that is, that pushed Atkinson to exceed everybody’s expectations … except his own.
“He had it in spades,” said Riley, who also coached Atkinson for parts of two seasons in the American Hockey League before he was established in the NHL. “I’ve never had another player like him.”