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The flurry of offseason trades by the Flyers has caught many fans by surprise. Kimmo Timonen says his initial reaction was the same.
“The moves surprised me, too. When I opened my computer during the draft weekend, my email was full of messages from people saying ‘wow!’.”
But after the initial shock faded away, Timonen says one of the trades probably wasn’t that big of a surprise, though he won’t mention any names.
“One of the trades was probably a bit expected, but there have been so many after that.”
“It’s a whole new team now with a new goalie. Time will tell if the trades were worth it.”
One of the questions after the trades is, who will be the next Flyers captain? Timonen doesn’t think it’s going to be him.
“I think I’m going to wear an A next season. I don’t think they’ll give the C to me. If they give it to me, I’ll gladly accept it, but I believe it’s going to be an A for me.”
Timonen was too banged up to join Team Finland for the World Championships after the season, but says he’s had the time to recover by now.
“My body is feeling pretty good. I’m starting my training season at the start of July and I’m healthy to start it.”
The speculations about when and where Timonen is going to retire, have quietly started among hockey fans on both sides of Atlantic. The last year or two Timonen has kept stating that he will play out his current contract that runs until 2013 and then he’s very likely done. But now he says it wouldn’t be impossible to still see him play in the Olympics in Sochi in 2014.
“Yeah, if I’m still good enough to get invited there, it’s possible.”
If Timonen does still play in Sochi, he would do it as an NHL player too, because one thing is for sure.
“I’m not returning to Finland to finish off my career. When it ends, it ends in the NHL.”
“Winning the Stanley Cup is the only dream I have left. I’ve played so long that I don’t have any other goals left anymore. Hopefully I can reach that in the next 2-3 years.”
This report was based off of a Finnish-language video interview by Savon Sanomat.
