IMPLICATIONS OF TIMONEN RE-SIGNING
Although things were far from set in stone at that point, Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen gave hints on locker cleanout day that he was leaning toward playing one more NHL season. One thing he made crystal clear on that day was that, if he did extend his career, it would be with the Flyers and would not be a money-based decision.
Yesterday, the hinted return became a reality. The Flyers announced they had signed Timonen to a one-year contract extension. Reportedly, the deal will carry a $2 million base salary -- a decrease of $4 million in his cap hit during the season -- but will also carry a variety of incentives that could total up to about $4 million.
What is not fully known at this point (but will inevitably come out from other sources despite team policy against publicly releasing financial terms of any deal) is how the incentives will be structured. According to an
ESPN report, the incentives allow the Flyers to "roll any bonuses achieved into [their 2015-16] cap number."
Since Timonen is on a one-year contract and the Flyers will most assuredly max out their available cap space this season, this is another way saying the Flyers are willing to accept overage penalties that would count against their 2015-16 cap space. Just how much in overages are caused by Timonen's bonuses will, of course, depend on the nature of the incentives themselves, how many of them he reaches and whether the Flyers can open up extra cap space this season under the ceiling (which is unlikely unless they have a bad season and end up as sellers).
In the short term, this arrangement had to be done in order to create a deal that is fair on both sides. Timonen is not a $2 million defenseman at today's prices and he willingly gave up all of his open market leverage to limit himself to only consider playing for the Flyers.
There is no arguing with the cap hit for next season, and having Timonen back for another season at $2 million gives the team some short-range flexibility to make other moves both this offseason and over the next year. For one more year, it also plugs what would have been a major loss to the blueline and buys time for prospects such as Samuel Morin, Shayne Gostisbehere and Robert Hägg to develop at their own pace.
From an on-ice standpoint, Timonen is still a valuable player. Yes, the 39-year-old has lost a step off his skating and there are times when the heavy mileage he's accumulated shows. Nevertheless, the four-time NHL All-Star and five-time Barry Ashbee Trophy winner still plays at a fairly high level most of the time.
The Flyers did not have a comparable replacement available and signing an unrestricted free agent at open market prices would tie the team into a multi-year deal at a greatly inflated cap hit -- with zero guarantees of actually seeing significantly better results on the ice. They may still want to move out some salary elsewhere in order to go after a UFA defenseman who can further bolster their puck-moving ability.
As far as the departure to the KHL of restricted free agent Erik Gustafsson goes, Flyers general manager Ron Hextall strongly emphasized that it played no role in the decision to re-sign Timonen.
Gustafsson would not have been Timonen's ice-time replacement if the Finnish veteran retired and the younger Swedish blueliner had stayed put. Gustafsson would still have been slotted in as the sixth or, more likely, seventh defenseman. Although some Flyers fans were enamored of Gustafsson as a puck-moving solution , there is a reason why Gustafsson and Philip Larsen (who is almost an identical player to Gustafsson in size, playing style and overall ability) have had equal trouble becoming NHL regulars and have gone to the KHL.
The truth about the Flyers current top six defensemen is this: It is not a stellar group. Even Timonen is no longer a genuine All-Star caliber player over a full season. It is also far from a lousy group. Every one of the top six is a bonafide NHL starting defenseman, and that hasn't always been the case. There are no Lukas Krajicek or failed former top prospects like Ryan Parent occupying starting roles, where you hold your breath to squeeze 10 minutes of ice time per game out of the player.
With that said, the Flyers still need at least one more mobile two-way defenseman with good breakout passing skills to help them spend less time in their own end of the ice. Ideally, that player would also have enough size and muscle to handle battles in the trenches. Finding such a player is neither easy nor cheap.
Re-signing Timonen helps to maintain the status quo but the mix still needs to be improved. On a teamwide basis -- defensemen and forwards alike -- upgrades to team speed, passing and forechecking prowess would help the club possess the puck more consistently and defend less. It is a little easier to upgrade those issues up front than on the blueline, and I personally see adding those qualities as a more pressing and immediate need than acquiring a sniping left winger for the top line.
At its core, the Flyers defensive problems are most often about breakdowns in team defense (gap control, forwards doing their part in coverages, everyone keeping their feet moving, having a short-range safety valve for passes, etc.) and not the unworthiness of the individual defensemen. It's all about team play and execution, and it's a two-way street.
For instance, people talk about the Flyers defense collectively backing into the defensive zone too much but they often have little other choice when other teams are able to attack with speed through the neutral zone. On the flip side, if the Flyers defensemen got the puck to their forwards faster and more accurately, it would be easier for the Flyers to be the team on the attack for the majority of the game.
Craig Berube's system is a highly structured one. When the players stayed within that structure -- which is steeped in an emphasis on team defense, collective skating and puck support -- the Flyers did not look like a slow team (although still far from an elite skating club). When they deviated, they got overwhelmed at five-on-five both by faster and physically stronger teams.
The Flyers too often lived and died on their special teams each of the last two seasons. They got better at five-on-five over the course of this past season but are still no better than average to slightly below average. They need to be better than average at even strength to take their next steps forward.
Timonen's decision to play one more year was good short-term news for the Flyers. However, to get better next season, they need to address other needs and they still don't have much wiggle room on the cap to do it unless they can move out other salaries first. In today's NHL, cap space IS an asset in and of itself. As such, achieving cap relief from moving out a long-term deal (Vincent Lecavalier's in particular) needs to be the team's primary goal over the next few weeks.
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SATURDAY QUICK HITS
* During yesterday's Timonen conference call, Flyers general manager Ron Hextall was asked to assess the 2014 NHL Draft class as a whole. He said, " Well, I think there’s probably not a strong draft on defense. There’s a lot of good forwards. I think it’s a good draft. All the amateur scouts, and I’m not necessarily saying ours, but they typically say when it’s a year like this it’s not a great draft. It’s probably an average draft this year. You get the one bumper crop maybe every five years that everybody says is a good draft, but that’s not normal every year. I think it’s an average draft, and there’s certainly some good players in it."
* In regard to the addition of Pierre-Edouard Bellemere, Hextall said the addition of the 29-year-old European free agent forward fell in line with the club's goal of plugging the sorts of needs spelled out in the top section of today's blog -- affordably upgrading team speed and two-way play at forward as well as on the blueline. For several years, Bellemare has been a good scorer in European club team and international play but that was not the main purpose he was signed by the Flyers.
"With Pierre-Edouard, we like the player. We think he’s a versatile guy. He can play center, he can play wing, he can kill penalties. He’s got a decent skill level. We like the player and that’s why we signed him. We’re going to have to have some lower-salaried guys probably in our lineup, and we think he’s a guy there who has a chance," Hextall said.
* Current and Alumni Flyers Birthdays: Matt Read turns 28 today. Eric Desjardins celebrates his 45th birthday. Sami Kapanen turns 41. Yves Preston, an offensively skilled fill-in forward of the late 1970s to early 1980s, is 58.
* Today in Flyers History: Twenty years ago today, the Flyers hired Bob Clarke as their general manager and club president although it was not officially announced until the following day. Thus began Clarke's second stint as Flyers general manager. In the interim, he had stints as general manager of the Minnesota North Stars and Florida Panthers sandwiched between a brief return to Philadelphia as executive vice president during the 1992-93 season. The Flyers compensated the Panthers with cash and a 1994 second-round Draft pick in order to release Clarke from his contract. Clarke replaced Russ Farwell as Flyers general manager. With the 1994 NHL Draft just two weeks away and insufficient lead time for Clarke to start from scratch in preparations, Farwell stayed on with the organization just long enough to assist Clarke in finishing that process. Farwell was offered another job title in the organization but soon declined. Farwell ended up interviewing for the Panthers' now-vacated GM job but the post went to Bryan Murray.
* Thirty-six years ago today, Flyers general manager Keith Allen made a major trade that made it clear the team was disassembling its slowly declining Cup-winning rosters of the mid-1970s with an eye toward staying strong in the years to come. On June 14, 1978, the Flyers traded defenseman Tom Bladon and forwards Ross Lonsberry and Orest Kindrachuk to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for the Penguins' first-round pick (sixth overall) in the 1978 NHL Draft. Philly used the pick to select defenseman Behn Wilson. With the seventh overall pick, acquired from the New York Rangers in exchange for dropping a tampering claim and allowing Fred Shero to leave Philadelphia to become New York's new coach and general manager, the Flyers selected Ken Linseman.
* Thirteen years ago today, the Flyers signed John LeClair to a five-year contract extension. Limited by back surgery to 16 games during the 2000-01 season, LeClair never again approached the 40 to 51 goal mark that had been his year-in and year-out standard pace through his first five-plus seasons after coming over to Philly from Montreal. Ultimately, the Flyers bought out the remainder of LeClair's contract following the lockout-canceled 2004-05 season. In his final Flyers season, 2003-04, LeClair produced 23 goals and 55 points in the regular season and four points (two goals, two assists) in 18 playoff games as the team fell one win short of reaching the Stanley Cup Finals.
* Ten years ago today, the Flyers signed team captain Keith Primeau to a four-year contract extension. He was coming off a spectacular 2004 playoff run that became the lasting hallmark of the Philadelphia portion of his career. Unfortunately, Primeau would play just nine more games in his NHL career. First, a lockout wiped out the entire 2004-05 campaign. When the NHL came back in 2005-06, Primeau suffered a concussion that triggered severe Post-Concussion Syndrome (PCS) symptoms and ultimately ended his playing career.
* Ten years ago today, the Flyers signed coveted rookie unrestricted free agent R.J. Umberger. A former first-round pick (16th overall in 2001) by the Vancouver Canucks, Umberger did not sign with Vancouver and sat out the 2003-04 season. During the NHL lockout of 2004-05, Umberger was a valuable contributor to the Philadelphia Phantoms' Calder Cup winning season, notching 65 regular season points and 10 playoff points. The next year, Umberger scored 20 goals as a rookie for the Flyers. His shining moment during his Flyers career, however, came during a dominant series against the Montreal Canadiens in the 2008 Eastern Conference Semifinals. Umberger notched eight goals and nine points over the course of the five-game series.
* Eight years ago today, the Flyers officially promoted Craig Berube from assistant coach of the AHL's Philadelphia Phantoms to the head coaching spot after Phantoms head coach John Stevens had been moved up to the big club to be an assistant coach to Ken Hitchcock. When the Flyers got off to a disastrous start, Hitchcock was fired and Stevens became the Flyers' head coach. Simultaneously, after six games steering the Phantoms, Berube moved up to become Stevens' assistant at the NHL level. Kjell Samuelsson became the Phantoms' head coach for the rest of the 2006-07 season. The next year, Berube returned to the Phantoms as head coach for the 2007-08 season with Samuelsson returning to assistant coaching duties.
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