These words might not hold that much weight had it been from someone like
Matt Duchene who stopped in for merely a minute during a playoff run or even an
Artemi Panarin who was never going to be a long term piece of the puzzle for the Blue Jackets, but Atkinson is far from either of those examples. Drafted in the 6th round of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, Atkinson has been a full time NHLer with the Blue Jackets since the 2011 - 2012 seasons and there's no doubt that his words carry a good deal of weight here.