Timonen also comes from my favorite team, KalPa Kuopio. Like Sami Kapanen, not the biggest guy, but skated smoothly and rarely made mistakes. The captain of the Nashville Predators in 2006-07, also had an A on his Philadelphia Flyers jersey. Originally drafted by the LA Kings they apparently didn't believe he could ever be a good enough D-man in the big guys' NHL.
“ They said, ‘Forget it. You have no chance to play in this league.’ ”
During the 2011-12 season he scored his 100th goal and 500th NHL regular season point and on March 19th 2013 Kimmo became the sixth Finn to play 1000 NHL regular season games.
After life threatening health issues during the off-season and not skating for eight months Timonen was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks in February 2015. He left the game after Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals on June 15th 2015. As a Stanley Cup Champion.