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Philly on Right Track with Timonen, Hawks on Even More Solid Ground with Kukkonen |
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One of the most pleasant recent developments in Flyer-land has been the play of rookie Finnish defenseman Jussi Timonen.
The 23-year-old from Kuopio, who started the season in the AHL with the Philadelphia Phantoms, has been a solid, mobile defensive presence who has nicely complimented wildly inconsistent fellow Finn Joni Pitkänen.
Shortly before Timonen was called up, Tim Panaccio had an interesting conversation with Flyers GM Paul Holmgren. Homer said the Flyers were looking for a defenseman who had played before with Pitkänen in Finland and could be a steadying influence on his play.
The immediate name that leaped to mind: Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Lasse Kukkonen. Kukkonen and Pitkänen played for years as teammates (although rarely as defensive partners in even-strength situations) for Kärpät Oulu in Finland.
Homer told Panotch that the Flyers didn't think Kukkonen was good enough and, besides, they didn't think Chicago was looking to trade Kukkonen (who has been one of their bright spots so far this season).
The first contention is hogwash. Clearly, Kukkonen is good enough.
His prior track record is considerably better than Timonen's. While that doesn't always translate to the NHL level, Kukkonen has been very solid for the Blackhawks this year. Prior to his NHL call up, Timonen was basically a lesser version of Kukkonen (less offensive upside and less of a shutdown D at the SM-Liiga level).
With the caveat that his NHL role hasn't been truly stretched to test its upward limit, it's no fluke that Kukkonen is Chicago's leading plus/minus defenseman (+5) and leading their D in points, playing 18+ minutes a game in his first full year in the NHL. It's merely a continuation of the way he's always played.
At age 20, Kukkonen was the captain of a championship caliber Kärpät Oulu in the SM-Liiga. Timonen was a seventh defenseman on strong TPS Turku clubs and no more than a #4 or #5 on so-so SaiPa squads.
The 25-year-old Kukkonen had a short stint with the Blackhawks in 2003-04 before returning to Oulu for two seasons. Many people, including an NHL assistant GM, thought the Hawks dropped the ball on Kukkonen the first time around and were fortunate to recognize their mistake and retain the player this year.
It's not an accident that he has twice led the SM-Liiga in plus-minus rating and was the D his coaches wanted out there on every key shift. At a time when Pitkänen drove his Kärpät coaches crazy, Kukkonen was the acknowledged team leader.
Shortly before the 2003 World Junior Championships, Pitkänen had a team-worst minus-five rating for first-place Kärpät, compared with Kukkonen's league-best +30.
After a spectacular WJC that saw Pitkänen earn All-tournament honors, he went on a two-way tear for Kärpät and quickly put up a +10 in an eight-game stretch to get back onto the positive side of the ledger before a knee injury and subsequent surgery ended his season. Kukkonen, meanwhile, continued his solid, steady play and finished the year +41, backboning a Kärpät D that helped take the club to the SM-Liiga Finals that year. (Timonen, by the way, played sparingly for Finland at the WJC that Pitkänen dominated).
It's also no coincidence that when injuries to NHL defensemen (including Pitkänen) depleted Finland's Turin Olympic roster on D, they quickly called on Kukkonen, then still with Kärpät, to fill in. He was clearly the best Finnish D in the domestic league. Jussi Timonen, by contrast, wasn't even on the national team's radar screen as a candidate for the Olympics or World Championships.
The only real "knock" on Kukkonen over the years was that he's not outstanding in any particular area except poise and hockey sense. He's a good passer, but not off the charts. He's a good skater, but not blazing fast. He has an average shot from the point but seems gets it through, because he otherwise doesn't shoot if it's a low-percentage play. He also is of strictly average size, which some people said held him back in the pre-lockout NHL, but always seemed to me to be a pre-judgment, rather than a fact. No one says those things anymore.
I don't believe for one second that the Flyers honestly believed that Kukkonen wasn't good enough to play with Pitkänen in the NHL, but were already convinced Timonen could be. No way.
However, Homer's latter contention may be well true-- Chicago may not be interested in trading him. Why should they? He goes out and does the job every night. If he stays healthy, he's the type of player you can put in the lineup and not worry about, even if you have to extend him to 20 minutes on some nights.
Ironically, right about the time the Flyers traded Michal Handzus to Chicago for Kyle Calder, I had a conversation with someone about how intriguing I thought it could be if Philly could finagle Kukkonen's rights from the Hawks and pair him with Pitkänen.
Given the Flyers horrible defensive play early this season and Calder's total lack of production (which I still finding shocking, because I truly thought he'd do well here playing with Jeff Carter and/or Mike Richards) it probably would have been a much better move to get Kukkonen or a different D from the Hawks as part of a somewhat larger deal.
Better for Philly, that is. Even with Handzus hurt, Chicago has STILL gotten the better end of the deal production-wise through the first month and two-thirds of the season. Calder has been a dead spot in the Philly lineup more nights than he's been a help. It's not just that he hasn't scored. Many nights, he hasn't even generated productive shifts.
Before Handzus got hurt, he was a major reason for the Hawks' hot start. There's no telling what Calder -- Chicago's leading scorer last season-- would have done if he had remained in Chicago this season. But it's a sad state of affairs when you can make a serious argument that an injured player is, at bare minimum, no less valuable to his current team than the healthy one for whom he was traded.
And, of course, the Hawks still have their corps of promising young D intact as they attempt to regroup and get back on track under a new coaching regime. Subtract a young D (Kukkonen, Seabrook, etc) from that Handzus trade and the team would be in worse shape right now.
From Philly's current standpoint, the continued strong play of Timonen has suddenly become a not-insignificant factor in determining whether this team is two good weeks away from being in the thick of the playoff picture or as hopelessly lost as they appeared throughout October and the greater portion of November.
In Finland, Timonen never really did much to stand out. He kept his game very simple. He is mobile and makes crisp passes, but pretty much played a stay-at-home D's game, even at that level. Ironically, those very traits are what has been helped the Flyers so far.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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