An Advanced Look: Kimmo Timonen

In case you had missed it, or are still on the fence on how you feel about the acquisition, we’re going to take a look at how recent trade acquisition Kimmo Timonen might fit on the Blackhawks defense. We had previously taken a look at the defensive lines for this season, so now we can sort of see how he might fit in for the remainder of the season. If you’re not familiar with some of these abbreviations or terms, the entirety is listed at the bottom under “Resources” with brief explanations for your convenience. All charts can be clicked on to enlarge.

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Some basics are that Kimmo Timonen is a 39 year old defenseman who for the past eleven seasons has averaged 1.48 points per 60, 0.25 Goals per 60 and 1.22 assists per 60. He averages 22.6 minutes of play per game with a 5.25 shooting percentage and a 53.1 CF%. In comparison, Chicago’s top defenseman, Duncan Keith, is a 31 year old who for the past eleven seasons has averaged 1.25 points per 60, 0.25 Goals per 60 and 1.03 assists per 60. He averages 25.32 minutes of play per game with a 4.71 shooting percentage and a 51.73 CF%.

So how will Timonen fit in here?

First let’s take a look at his player usage compared to other Chicago defensemen on the ice.

Chart courtesy war-on-ice | Current as of 1 March 2015

From this chart we can see that Timonen averages just under 18 minutes of even-strength play per game on the ice. Because he is returning back from an injury, he might be looking at less minutes, but this is still an increase over the likes of other third-pairing defensemen like Michal Rozsival (16.3 min/game over 49 games), David Rundblad (12.3 min/game for 50 games), Tim Erixon (9.6 min/game for 8 games) and Trevor VanRiemsdyk (13.6 min/game for 18 games). Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Niklas Hjalmarsson have all seen their numbers increase to 22 even-strength minutes per game plus over the course of this season out of necessity. If Timonen is able to eat any of those minutes, it would provide them with a much needed break as well as the ability to return to their regular usage after having to shift around lines and deployment to cover weaknesses.

Shots against

Chart courtesy war-on-ice

I wanted to include Philadelphia’s overall look just so you could see what an impact he had made for his team. But how does he compare to other Chicago defenseman?

Chart courtesy war-on-ice | Current as of 1 March 2015

You can see from this chart that he has more similar numbers to Chicago defensemen than he did to Philadelphia’s. Timonen was looking at about 58.5 Corsi-For events per 60 minutes, and about 50 Corsi-Against in that same time frame (53.92 CF%). In comparison, Duncan Keith has about 62.5 CF/49.5 CA (55.8CF%).

Some other things about Timonen’s trade that are important to note:

Timonen is a 5 time Barry Ashbee winner, amongst plenty of other career accomplishments (For starters, Timonen has represented Finland in five Olympics and has appeared in 87 Stanley Cup playoff games. Timonen ranks third among active defensemen with 571 points in 1,092 games).
As he plans to retire, he won’t more than likely have any impact on next year’s cap.
Stan Bowman has apparently been scouting him out for a month prior to the trade. Timonen had been planning to be returning to the ice Saturday February 28th for the Philadelphia Flyers, but the trade obviously prevented that. We next face the Flyers on March 25th.

Resources

Corsi: For those that are unsure of what Corsi even is, it is measured as Corsi For and Corsi Against (CA). Corsi is the total number of on-ice shot attempts (on goal, missed, or blocked) taken during a game/series/season. Corsi For is the amount of the total Corsi taken by one team or player on said team. Corsi Against is the amount of the total Corsi taken against one team or player on said team.
CA% : Corsi Against Percentage (of total) What this means is they’ve totaled up the Corsi Events that took place for both teams, and divided the individual team’s total by that number and multiplied it by 100 to get a percentage.
CP60 : Corsi Per 60. What this means is they’ve totaled up the Corsi events that took place for both teams and divided it by 60 to get an average Corsi Events per 60 minutes.
G+/- : Goal Differential. The total number of Goals For (GF) minus the total number of Goals Against (GA). If it is a positive number, the team is outscoring their opponents.
FO%: The percentage of Face-offs won.
OFOn%: On-Ice Unblocked Shot Attempts on Goal
OSh%: On-Ice Shooting percentage
OSv%: On-Ice Save percentage
PDO: On-Ice Save percentage + On-Ice Shooting percentage
ZSO%: The amount of Offensive Zone starts. The larger the number, the more often a team starts (with a Face-off) in their Offensive Zone

Sources

Stats and charts courtesy of war-on-ice.com

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