Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

That was fast: Flyers sign Del Zotto to one-year, $1.3M deal

MichaelDelZotto

It didn’t take long for Ron Hextall to find Kimmo Timonen’s replacement.

Just hours after losing Timonen’s services to a blood clotting issue, the Flyers inked former Rangers and Predators defenseman Michael Del Zotto to a one-year deal. Del Zotto, 24, split last season between New York and Nashville and had a nightmarish time in both cities, landing in both Alain Vigneault’s and Barry Trotz’s doghouses.

A former first-round pick, Del Zotto was at one point considered an up-and-coming young blueliner. He finished eighth in Calder voting on the strength of a 37-point campaign in 2009-10 and had a banner year in 2011-12, scoring a career-high 10 goals and 41 points to finish 12th in Norris voting (ahead of Duncan Keith, if you can imagine that.)

But that feels like a long time ago.

Last season was so bad that, according to the New York Post, one NHL club claimed Del Zotto’s reputation was “in tatters.” Nashville didn’t even bother giving him a qualifying offer after he scored just one goal and five points in 25 games, occasionally sitting as a healthy scratch.

In Philadelphia, though, he’ll certainly have a chance to revive his career.

Philly’s new projected top-six defense is Mark Streit, Braydon Coburn, Andrew MacDonald, Nicklas Grossmann, Luke Schenn and Nick Schultz -- hardly an impenetrable unit, and one that should provide Del Zotto an opportunity to find minutes. What’s more, he’s an offensive defenseman and Philly is looking to replace some of what Timonen brought to the table -- namely on the power play. Timonen was second on the team in PP TOI last season (3:25 per game), and led all Flyer rearguards with 20 power play points.

UPDATE: Per TSN, the deal is for $1.3 million. Assuming Timonen’s $2 million cap hit goes on LTIR, the Flyers get Del Zotto and an additional $700k of relief, which isn’t too shabby.