How will the Flyers defense replace Kimmo Timonen?

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Questions Abound for Philadelphia Flyers Blue Line

There are few teams in the NHL that seem to have as much boom-or-bust potential as the Philadelphia Flyers.

With the talent they have up front with Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, Wayne Simmonds, Sean Couturier, Brayden Schenn and Matt Read leading their forward group, they shouldn’t have much of an issue scoring enough goals to be a playoff team. It’s been eight years since they finished outside of the top-10 in the league in offense, and they should have no trouble staying in the top of the league again this season.

The problem is going to be whether or not they’re going to be able to prevent enough goals to make the playoffs.

Their goaltending concerns are well documented at this point, and even though Steve Mason had a promising start to his Flyers career we’ve seen enough examples (including from Mason himself) that pretty much any goalie — even bad one — are capable of putting together 30-to-40 game stretches were they look really good before returning to their normal career levels. But when you combine the uncertain goaltending duo with the defense they’re looking to put on the ice, there should be some serious concern as to how good this team can be and how far it can go.

Say this for the Flyers: Whatever question marks they have on their blue line it’s certainly not from a lack of spending money. Talent evaluation, on the other hand, is a different story. They’ve thrown huge contracts at the likes of Luke Schenn, Andrew MacDonald, Nicklas Grossmann and Mark Streit over the past couple of seasons (and that’s not even including the contract that they’re still paying Chris Pronger). That quartet alone is going to take up 25 percent of their allotted cap space for the season, which doesn’t seem like the most efficient use of their resources.

Making matters worse was the offseason development involving their best defenseman.

It was discovered in August that Kimmo Timonen had blood clots in his leg and lungs that would leave his playing career in jeopardy. At a minimum, he is going to miss at least several months and that could be a crushing blow to a Flyers defense that is already short on guys that can move the puck and log big minutes against other team’s top lines.

Of the seven Flyers defensemen that logged at least 200 even-strength minutes last season, only three of them (Timonen, Braydon Coburn and Streit) finished as positive possession players.

Timonen finished with a team-leading (among defensemen) 55.1 Corsi Percentage, while Coburn and Streit came in at 51.3 and 50.1 respectively. The problem? Timonen appeared to be the driving force behind their positive numbers as both struggled to keep the puck in the offensive zone and away from their own goal when they were paired with any other defensemen on the team.

The numbers are … not good.

Andrew MacDonald spent only 1:50 of even-strength ice-time with Timonen last season so he really had nothing to show when it came to playing alongside him.

Zero Flyers defensemen finished last season as positive position players when they weren’t on the ice with Timonen. As if that’s not concerning enough, consider that only four forwards managed to break even when Timonen was not on the ice with them: Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, Michael Raffl and Scott Hartnell. Hartnell, if you recall, no longer plays for the team after being traded to Columbus for R.J. Umberger.

When you take Timonen out of the mix, it’s a defense that is short on players that can move the puck and way too heavy on statues like Luke Schenn and Andrew MacDonald. They attempted to address that after the Timonen news by signing Michael Del Zotto, an offensive-minded defenseman that needs to be heavily sheltered in order to succeed. Two different teams have given up on him in the past year and his play in the defensive zone earned him the nickname “Del Zaster” from Rangers fans.

It’s not an ideal situation and is pretty much where bad luck (Timonen) and poor decision-making (paying Luke Schenn and Andrew MacDonald more than $10 million per season and failing to develop any kind of depth from within the farm system) meet to form the perfect storm of bad defense.

The success or failure of the Flyers’ season will pretty much come down to how far their forwards can carry them and whether or not Steve Mason can avoid imploding in net.[/vc_column_text][dt_fancy_separator separator_style=”dotted” separator_color=”accent”][/vc_column][/vc_row]