NHL News of the Day - December 20

Tough news for the Philadelphia Flyers as Cam Atkinson will be sidelined for the rest of the year due to season-ending surgery on his neck.

Atkinson spent the first decade of his career with the Columbus Blue Jackets. In his first season with the Flyers, he scored 23 goals and had 50 points.

However, the 33-year-old has yet to play a single game this season and has now been ruled out for the rest of the year. He’s currently signed through 2025, with a cap hit of $5.875m per season.

In news out of San Jose, Sharks forward Tomas Hertl has been suspended two games for a high-sticking penalty against the Calgary Flames' Elias Lindholm.

This is the first suspension of his career and the NHL's Department of Player Safety announced Monday that Hertl will miss two games without pay.

In total, Hertl will forfeit about $88,000 in salary for missing the two games against Calgary and the Minnesota Wild, the funds surrendered will go toward the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund.

In Edmonton, goaltender Stuart Skinner was signed to a three-year, $7.8m contract extension with the Oilers on Monday.

This season, the 24-year-old from Edmonton has a 9-8-1 record, a 2.83 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage for the Oilers.

In 2017, Skinner was drafted in the third round of the 2017 entry draft. Since being drafted, Skinner has appeared in 33 NHL games with a career 2.82 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage.