Jussi Timonen (born June 29, 1983) is a Finnish professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the latter a reference t ...

who is currently an

unrestricted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

. He most recently played for the Schwenninger Wild Wings of the

Deutsche Eishockey Liga The Deutsche Eishockey Liga (for sponsorship reasons called "PENNY Deutsche Eishockey Liga") (; English: ''German Ice Hockey League'') or DEL, is a German professional ice hockey league and the highest division in German ice hockey. Founded in ...

(DEL). He is the younger brother former NHL'er Kimmo Timonen.

Playing career

Timonen began playing hockey at the junior level for KalPa, the team owned by brother Kimmo Timonen and Sami Kapanen. After two years with the team, he was drafted by the

Philadelphia Flyers The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games in Wel ...

in the fifth round, 146th overall, of the 2001 NHL Entry Draft. He has since played for two other

SM-liiga The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), (Finnish for ''League'') colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding leagu ...

teams,

TPS TPS or Tps may refer to: In arts and entertainment *Télévision Par Satellite, a French satellite television company *Third-person shooter, a game genre * Torsonic Polarity Syndrome, in ''South Park'' animation * Trailer Park Sex, a band from ...

and

SaiPa SAIPA ( fa, سایپا, ''SAIPA'') is an Iranian automaker headquartered in Tehran. The SAIPAC (an acronym for the French ''Société anonyme iranienne de production des automobiles Citroën'') was established in 1965 as with 75% Iran ...

. On May 30, 2006, the Flyers announced that they had signed Timonen to a two-year entry-level contract. "I am very happy because this has been my dream all my life," said Timonen. "I talked to my brother a little bit about the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

and he gave me some tips, but we will talk more on this later. I think my skating is pretty good. That is my main strength." Following Flyers training camp, he was sent down to the

Philadelphia Phantoms The Philadelphia Phantoms were a professional ice hockey team that played in the American Hockey League (AHL) from 1996 to 2009. The club was based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and played most of its home games at the Spectrum. During schedule ...

, the AHL affiliate of the Flyers. He was called up and made his NHL debut on November 20 against the

Pittsburgh Penguins The Pittsburgh Penguins (colloquially known as the Pens) are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference, and have play ...

. On December 10, 2007, Timonen was traded to the Dallas Stars in return for a conditional draft pick where he was placed with the team's AHL affiliate, the Iowa Stars. Following the season, Timonen returned to Finland to play for KalPa. On December 12, 2012, Timonen was signed to a four-year contract extension to remain with KalPa. After playing nine seasons with KalPa, captaining the club for two years, Timonen left as a free agent following the 2016–17 season. He agreed to continue his career in Germany, signing an initial one-year contract with the Schwenninger Wild Wings of the DEL on May 7, 2017. Timonen played two seasons with the Wild Wings, before leaving the club at the conclusion of the 2018–19 season.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* 1983 births Finnish ice hockey defencemen Iowa Stars players KalPa players Living people Mikkelin Jukurit players People from Kuopio Philadelphia Flyers draft picks Philadelphia Flyers players Philadelphia Phantoms players SaiPa players Schwenninger Wild Wings players HC TPS players TuTo players Sportspeople from North Savo {{Finland-icehockey-defenceman-stub