We don’t know anything new about Kimmo Timonen’s blood clot status. He and Ron Hextall met with the media today and … well, didn’t announce much of anything. He’s not retiring from hockey, but time will tell whether or not he plays hockey in the NHL again.
“Kimmo will not play for a period of time here, meaning months,” Hextall said. “We’ll have a follow-up appointment probably in the New Year. Hopefully everything’s clear [with his blood clots] and then we move on to the next step.”
Kimmo made it pretty clear that the chances of him returning to NHL action aren’t very likely.
“Like Hexy said, it’s going to take months to see if the clots are gone or are still,” Timonen said. “The chances of me playing are really slim. My desire is to play but I have to listen to the doctors.”
Here’s basically how it breaks down: Kimmo has a family history of a blood clots. He’s currently on blood thinners to get rid of those clots, but they might never fully go away and the doctors say there’s a good chance he’ll have to stay on those thinners for the rest of his life. If he must remain on the thinners, he can’t play hockey because it would be too dangerous to take contact.
So the only hope is that when he goes back for that follow-up in January or whenever it is, he’s able to get off the thinners. That’s his only chance of playing in the NHL again.
He discussed how the blood clot diagnosis was made last month.
“I had a great summer until the first week of August,” Kimmo said. “Was having a bit of calf pain and thought I had a pulled muscle. It was really swollen and they sent me to the ultrasound specialist and was in the hospital. I was really looking forward to this year and getting ready. I was looking forward to my final year and a chance to play for the Stanley Cup one last time.”
When it comes to how this impacts the team, we all know Kimmo is basically irreplaceable on the ice. Off the ice, he’ll likely go on long-term injured reserve and won’t impact the organization from a salary cap perspective, which helps when it comes to replacing him. But again, that’s going to be difficult.
Get well soon, Kimmo.
