Flyers trade Kimmo Timonen to Blackhawks

Flyers trade Kimmo Timonen to Blackhawks
February 27, 2015, 8:00 pm
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Kimmo Timonen, who spent seven seasons with the Flyers, was traded to the Blackhawks Friday night. (USA Today Images)

UPDATED: 10:05 p.m.

When the Flyers did not place defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo on waivers Friday to clear a roster spot for Kimmo Timonen’s return Saturday against the Rangers, it left open three possibilities:

One, the Flyers were delaying Timonen’s comeback until after Monday’s NHL trade deadline.

Two, the Flyers were seeking a trade to create a spot.

Three, the Flyers were seeking to trade Timonen to a Stanley Cup contender.

Well, it was option three that panned out, as the Flyers traded the 39-year-old defenseman to the Blackhawks Friday for a 2015 second-round pick and a 2016 conditional pick.

"You're talking about a special player, don't forget," Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said during a conference call. "These types of players, I know Kimmo's 39 years old, but this is a special player. If he goes in there and plays the way he's capable of playing, he's going to give Chicago a big boost.

"The return, I think, is a fair return. I think it's fair for Chicago, I think it's fair for us. There's a lot of upside to this deal for them. In the end, they may have underpaid by a longshot for this deal. There's some risks, obviously, on their side — he hasn't played all year. But there's so much upside as well.

"If Kimmo had played all year and we would have moved him right now, this wouldn't have been the return. I believe it would have been far greater than this. It's a fair deal for both sides, and it got Kimmo to a place he's comfortable with."

The conditional draft pick is a fourth-rounder, but will become a third-round pick if the Blackhawks win two rounds and Timonen plays 50 percent of their games. If Chicago wins three rounds with Timonen playing 50 percent of the third series, it’ll become a second-round pick.

"There's a few things working in your favor," Hextall said. "First of all, his cap number is friendly. You got a team adding certainly a top-four defenseman, maybe a two-two defenseman at a cap number that is reasonable so there's value there. You're not only getting a player, but you're getting a damn good person here, too, and a guy who's going to work hard every day. He's going to have a good influence on Chicago. He's a rested hockey player, and he's probably in the best shape of his life."

Timonen wanted another crack at a Cup and he’ll stand a far better chance with Blackhawks than with Craig Berube’s Flyers, who lost twice this week and failed to cut down their four-point deficit to Boston in the wild card hunt.

"It gives him a chance to win the ultimate prize," Hextall said. That's not to say we don't have a chance — you get to the playoffs, you have a chance. But I think the security of Chicago being in the playoffs versus us being out of the playoffs at this point, it was probably the thing that pushed Kimmo over the edge."

With the Bruins beating the Devils, 3-2, in overtime Friday night, the Flyers are now six points out of the wild card spot. Boston has one game in hand on the Flyers, so there are two more possible points the Bruins could have on the Flyers. The Flyers' playoff chances took a severe downward turn with losses in Carolina and Toronto.

Hextall admitted this past week's result did play into the decision to move Timonen but …

"There's two sides to it," Hextall said. "Theres the future, [and] there's now. The defensemen we have [here] have been playing well. When you can get this type of a return and put Kimmo in a spot where he's on one of the top probably couple teams in the league. This worked for both sides."

Timonen’s departure has no impact on the Flyers' salary cap situation looking ahead to next season because he’s an unrestricted free agent who was going to retire. The Flyers were using his $2 million salary on long-term injured reserve this season for blood clots.

"To be honest with you, (the salary cap) wasn't a huge concern," Hextall said. "It was a small piece of it, but it wasn't a huge concern. I don't believe we're gonna have a cap problem next year. Obviously we've got Chris Pronger on long term injury and we're not in a great cap situation, but we find a way to make that work."

Timonen spent seven of his 15 years playing in the NHL with the Flyers, joining the ranks of Mark Howe and Eric Desjardins as arguably the third most significant defenseman who has worn orange ‘n' black.

Ironically, all three defensemen were acquired via trades and not developed internally by the Flyers.

Much of Timonen’s Flyers career was spent alongside Braydon Coburn, forming one of the most dynamic defensive duos in club history.

In terms of longevity, the pairing of Desjardins and Chris Therien — almost 10 seasons — was longer in Flyers history.

Coburn has never been the same player since Timonen’s departure. Timonen's last game as a Flyers was Game 7 of the opening round of the playoffs last April against the Rangers.

Timonen leaves in what will be his 16th season where he didn’t play at all as a Flyer because of blood clots in his lungs and legs. Still, his marks on the franchise will stand for generations.

He was the third most productive defenseman in Flyers history with 270 points in 519 games. He averaged 22 minutes, 27 seconds ice time here — two ticks shy of his eight-year average with the Nashville Predators.

His presence made the Flyers' power play and penalty kill one of the top 10 in the league.

His five Barry Ashbee Trophies as the club’s best defenseman are second only to Desjardins (seven).

While Timonen said this week that he didn’t necessarily have to come back and play before the trade deadline and was OK with trying to assist the Flyers in a playoff chase, his ultimate goal was another crack at a Cup, which has forever eluded him.

“I still miss the game, I miss competing and that’s probably the biggest thing,” he said Feb. 5. “I like the game and I like to compete. I just want to feel that one more time.”

And now he will.

It just won’t be with the Flyers.

CSNPhilly.com's Tom Dougherty contributed to this report.

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