TIMONEN RETURN/FAREWELL WILL BE EMOTIONAL NIGHT
There will not be much at stake in the standings when the Philadelphia Flyers take to the ice against the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night at the Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers are simply playing out their remaining schedule en route to a long offseason. The Blackhawks are comfortably entrenched in the Western Conference playoffs and are mostly playing for home ice advantage in the first round.
Nevertheless, the game will be a special and memorable night for one reason: the Philadelphia return and farewell of Kimmo Timonen, who was traded to Chicago on Feb. 27 after missing the entire season to date because of blood clots in his lungs and right calf. The 40-year-old defenseman will retire at the end of this season.
It will be a special night for Timonen, who will get to soak in a standing ovation from the Flyers fans and the stick taps of both the Flyers and Blackhawks players. His family will be in attendance as well.
The game will give the fans at the Wells Fargo Center a chance to express their appreciation for one of the best defensemen in franchise history -- certainly one of the top five and arguably among the top three. It will also give the Flyers players, who gave Timonen a special welcome at his first practice in his comeback bid, an opportunity to share the ice (albeit on the other side) with one of the most universally respected competitors in the game.
It wasn't supposed to end like this, with Timonen wearing the uniform of another teams. Such is hockey and such is life. Sometimes even the best-laid plans go astray.
Last year, Timonen chose to prolong his career by one season. After seven mostly happy and productive years with the Flyers, the five-time Barry Ashbee Trophy winner did not want to consider signing with any other team as an unrestricted free agent. He even took a substantial paycut to make the one-year deal work on the salary cap.
In August, while doing off-ice training in Finland, Timonen experienced what he thought at first was a pulled calf muscle. Heeding the advice of a friend, he got checked out by a doctor. Tests revealed the blood clots. Timonen, who also has a genetic blood disorder that makes him prone to blood clots and puts him at risk of embolism, was placed on the blood-thinning medication rivaroxaban (brand named Xarelto).
Timonen missed five months of NHL action, during which time he was able to do off-ice exercise but not cleared to skate. He had numerous meetings with doctors as well as with Flyers general manager Ron Hextall.
According to sources close to the situation on both sides, the meetings with Hextall got emotional once doctors gave Timonen the opinion that the risks could be mitigated enough to make the resumption of his playing career feasible. Timonen became increasingly adamant that he intended to play again, while Hextall took much more convincing than the player.
By now, Timonen finishing his career as a Flyer was no longer in the best interests of either the player or the team. A trade became inevitable, with Timonen wanting to take one final run at a Stanley Cup and the Flyers looking to acquire draft pick assets.
There were also salary cap and roster overcrowding considerations for the Flyers. While there were ways to activate Timonen and fit him under the current-season salary cap, the team risked overages on next season's cap figure if the soon-to-retire defenseman hit the still-reachable levels of games-played bonuses on his current contract. With the Flyers' team out of playoff position and a glut of defensemen already on the roster, a trade made the most season when all emotions were removed from the situation.
Potential future Flyers Hall of Fame defensemen Kimmo Timonen (left) poses with recent inductee Eric Desjardins (center) and all-time top franchise defenseman Mark Howe.
On Feb. 27, the Flyers traded Timonen to Chicago in exchange for a 2015 second-round draft pick and a 2016 conditional draft pick. The latter pick will be a fourth-round pick unless the Blackhawks advance to the Western Conference Final, whereupon it becomes a third-round pick. The pick would become a second-round pick under the dual conditions that the Hawks reach the 2015 Stanley Cup Final and Timonen dresses in at least half of the team's playoff games.
The trade was a win-win proposition both for Timonen and for the Flyers.
Timonen, who did not have the benefit of a training camp or any preseason tuneups was able to go to a situation where he is not expected to absorb a lot of minutes or play against opposing team's top players. Moreover, the Hawks are a perennial Stanley Cup contender, although the broken clavicle suffered by superstar forward Patrick Kane does not help their cause in a very tough conference.
Timonen has struggled in the early going with the Blackhawks. The pacing and intensity of the play down the stretch run is far beyond anything he'd have experienced during a normal training camp and the total of 10 months off the ice took a toll. Timonen already has massive mileage and wear-and-tear on his body, anyway. Nevertheless, the player's almost legendary mental toughness and outstanding hockey sense still give him something to offer his new team.
For the Flyers, the organization received a second-round pick in a deep draft where they previously lacked a second-round selection. Following the subsequent trade to Tampa Bay of Timonen's long-time Flyers defense partner, Braydon Coburn, the Flyers also obtained Tampa's 2015 first-round pick.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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