Philadelphia Flyers’ Kimmo Timonen Defied the Aging Curve – The Hockey Writers – Flyers History

Over the years, the Philadelphia Flyers have had some tremendous defensemen. But none have been quite like Kimmo Timonen. He was a player who defied the aging curve so tremendously that we may not see anything like him for a very long time.

Timonen’s Late-Age Dominance

Timonen was traded to the Flyers in the 2007 offseason along with Scott Hartnell for a late first-round pick following a disastrous campaign for the Orange and Black—they had the worst record in the NHL. Wanting to return to playoff success, general manager (GM) Paul Holmgren made a low-risk splash here. Hartnell was great in his own right, making the All-Star Team in 2011-12, but we’ll focus on the defenseman here. Acquired at 32 years of age, the odds of long-term success were low—he broke the model anyway.

From 2008-2014, Timonen played in 519 games for the Flyers, scoring 38 goals and 232 assists for 270 points and plus-44 rating. He was an excellent small, offensively-minded defender who was also great in his own zone. Quarterbacking Philadelphia’s power play every season during that span, they had an average finish of between sixth and seventh in the league in power play percentage (PP%). Since his departure, the team has had just one finish in the top 10 in PP% over 10 seasons.

Timonen was vital to the Flyers’ postseason success during his time, being arguably the best defenseman on the team over six runs to the playoffs and two appearances in the Eastern Conference Final. The great part about his arrival is that the timing was perfect for the analytics era—it coincided with his debut with the Orange and Black in 2007-08. Because of this, we can better quantify how good the veteran was.

Timonen’s best numbers were from 2011-2014, so that’s what we’ll list. But the important thing to note here is his age. Starting out at 36 and ending at 39 years old, to say the Finnish defender aged gracefully is an understatement.

Below, we’ll take a look at where Timonen ranked at even strength (EV) among defenders with 1,000 minutes of time on ice (TOI) from 2011-2014. The stats we’ll use are points per 60 (P/60), relative expected goals percentage (xGF% Rel), relative Corsi percentage (CF% Rel), relative goals percentage (GF% Rel), and average TOI (ATOI).

A glossary for the advanced stats is included here. Basically, the middle three numbers measure a player’s impact on their own team for chance creation and actual goals scored. There were few defensemen, if any, more valuable than him during the last three seasons of his tenure with the Orange and Black.

In the top-end percentile for everything other than ice time during this span, it’s safe to say that Timonen was a monster. He had a profound offensive impact for the Flyers in terms of expected goals and his individual scoring results. This was an era where Philadelphia’s defense started to sink due to the losses of Chris Pronger and eventually Matt Carle, but the ageless wonder held strong.

To put into perspective how impressive a 7.44 xGF% Rel during a three-year span is, we can look at every single defenseman who had an xGF% Rel of at least 7.0 over that long of a span in the analytics era. From 2007-08 through 2023-24, that list is only nine players if we only include athletes who appeared in all three campaigns:

• Chris Tanev
• Devon Toews
• Adam Pelech
• Adam Fox
• Mackenzie Weegar
• Marc-Edouard Vlasic
• Timonen
• Ryan Ellis
• Charlie McAvoy

The fact that Timonen is among this group of defensemen is remarkable alone, as all of them were notable analytical darlings. But the amazing part? The age difference is staggering. The average age range of these nine defensemen from when they started their reign until they ended it was 26 to 29. Timonen was an entire decade older.

This kind of age-defiance is something that we almost never see out of defensemen. Nicklas Lidstrom was still the “perfect human” even as he was creeping into his 40s, but that’s expected from a player who won seven of the 10 Norris Trophies handed out from 2000-2011. For Timonen to rival the longevity of a player like this is most definitely an honor. We have not seen a defenseman match this level of late-age dominance in the nine seasons following the latter’s retirement.

Timonen’s Postseason Excellence

Timonen wasn’t just a regular-season merchant, either. He was arguably even better in the playoffs when the Flyers were still competing. From their 2010 run to the Stanley Cup Final to their second-round exit in 2012, below are his numbers:

Timonen’s usage was a lot heavier during this time, which makes sense considering ice time tends to favor star players in the postseason and the fact that he was two years younger. His percentiles don’t stick out as much because there’s a smaller sample size, but don’t get it twisted: the veteran was sensational.

Just to reference how valuable Timonen was to the Flyers, only he and Braydon Coburn had a positive xGF% Rel during that span among the 11 defensemen with 100 minutes of ice time at even strength. When the Flyers went to the Final in 2010, Timonen’s 10.2 xGF% Rel was far and away the best on the team in that same share of ice time. Pronger had the only other positive rate at 1.38. Against the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Final, those two were really the only ones with a pulse.

Should Timonen Make the Flyers’ Hall of Fame?

Entering the 2024-25 season, there are only six defensemen in the Flyers’ team Hall of Fame. Those include Joe Watson, Eric Desjardins, Ed Van Impe, Jim Watson, Mark Howe, and Barry Ashbee. Timonen’s 519 games played during his tenure in Philadelphia would be second-last on this list (and by a 75-game margin), which is notable but probably shouldn’t hurt his odds too much.

Just comparing these players and seeing their impact on the Flyers, Timonen has a decent case. While he wasn’t quite on the level of Desjardins or Howe, he was arguably in the same tier as the rest. Winning the Stanley Cup in 2010 would have certainly cemented his status, but he can possibly do without it.

Related: Flyers’ 5 Best Drafted Defensemen in Franchise History

Despite his age limitations, Timonen played at an elite level in Philadelphia longer than anyone could have guessed. For seven seasons, he was truly one of a kind.

Stats courtesy of Natural Stat Trick