Because of Nashville's uncertain ownership future and an expected tight budget in the coming year, the Predators arranged with the Flyers to give them exclusive negotiating rights to two coveted free agents - defenceman Kimmo Timonen and forward Scott Hartnell. Sources tell TSN the Flyers have now signed both Hartnell and Timonen to long-term contracts.The Flyers also agreed to terms with Timonen on a 6-year, $37.8 million contract for an annual cap hit of $6.3 million.(Also noticed by Christy at BTJ)
I'll eschew any dicussion at the moment on how absolutely batshit insane giving a 31-year old a 6 year deal is, instead focusing on why this is important for the Wings. Timonen's stats are comparable to our own Mathieu Schneider's, and this deal is another one for Schneider's agent to point to when making salary demands for his client. Take a look at Schneider, and two D who rank slightly below and above him, and what they got from their teams.
Andrei Markov (6-43-49 +2) 5.75MMathieu Schneider (11-41-52 +12) ???M
Kimmo Timonen (13-42-55 +20) 6.3M
With the slighlty inferior Markov getting 5.75M, and the slightly superior Timonen getting 6.3M, it's not exactly brain science to deduce that Schneider's worth on the open market is 6M. Hesitance about his age may knock that down a bit, but probably no lower than 5.5M in my mind. I'll reiterate again what I think about Schneids, which is that he will have to agree to take less than market value to stay with the Wings.
