Tim Kennedy (ice hockey)

This article is about the hockey player. For the mixed martial artist, see Tim Kennedy (fighter).
For other people named Timothy Kennedy, see Timothy Kennedy (disambiguation).
Tim Kennedy
Born (1986-04-30) April 30, 1986
Buffalo, NY, USA
Height 5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Weight 175 lb (79 kg; 12 st 7 lb)
Position Left Wing
Shoots Left
SHL team
Former teams		 Luleå HF
Buffalo Sabres
Florida Panthers
San Jose Sharks
Phoenix Coyotes
Neftkhimik Nizhnekamsk
Jokerit
National team  United States
NHL Draft 181st overall, 2005
Washington Capitals
Playing career 2008–present

Timothy J. Kennedy (born April 30, 1986) is an American professional ice hockey forward who plays for Luleå HF of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL).

Playing career

Kennedy played several years of his youth career with the Buffalo Regals, where he led the team with future Michigan State University teammate Chris Mueller. He also attended Bishop Timon - St. Jude High School He played for several years on the Western Division’s hockey team in the Empire State Games where his teams won gold in 2002 and 2003. In 2003, Kennedy was offered a contract with the OHL, but Kennedy declined because he would have been unable to play NCAA college hockey. He was later drafted by the Sioux City Musketeers, a team in the United States Hockey League. Kennedy was actively recruited by major college hockey programs including Colorado College, Ohio State, Michigan State, and Boston College. Ultimately he accepted a scholarship to Michigan State, where he was a member of 2007 NCAA Championship team. He contributed one goal in the championship game against Boston College and assisted Justin Abdelkader's game-winning goal.

Tim Kennedy was a 2005 sixth-round draft pick (181 overall) of the Washington Capitals but was traded to the Buffalo Sabres the day he was drafted in exchange for Buffalo's sixth-round draft pick in 2006 (Mathieu Perreault).

On June 1, 2008, Kennedy signed a two-year entry-level contract with the Sabres. He spent the beginning of the 2008–09 season playing for the Portland Pirates of the American Hockey League. On December 27, 2008, the Sabres called him up from Portland and gave him the rare honor of being able to play his first NHL game in his hometown in Buffalo. That game was a shoot-out win over the New York Islanders for the Sabres.

On September 30, 2009, the Sabres announced that Kennedy would start the 2009–10 season in Buffalo. Kennedy scored 10 goals and 16 assists, for a total of 26 points in 78 games in the regular season. He scored 1 goal and 2 assists in 6 playoff games.

Tim Kennedy was named to the 2010 Team USA roster for the World Championships in Germany. Team USA went on to finish 13th out of 16 teams, with Kennedy scoring one goal and no assists in six games.

At the end of the 2009-10 season, Kennedy’s entry-level contract expired resulting in a contract dispute with the Sabres. Kennedy went to arbitration to settle the contract dispute for the 2010–11 season. This resulted in an arbitration ruling of $1,000,000. In the dispute, Kennedy wanted a higher valued contract that was one-way to remain at the NHL level over the lesser two-way contract the Sabres were offering him that would have him split time between the Sabres and their AHL affiliate in Portland. The Sabres didn’t want to pay the additional amount. So on August 2, 2010, the Sabres waived Kennedy.

The next day on August 3, 2010, Kennedy cleared waivers (NHL). "Clearing waivers" in the NHL means that every team in the NHL has the opportunity to "claim" a player that has been "waived" by a team, to take on that player and their contract, but that no team chooses to. That afternoon, Sabres GM Darcy Regier announced in a press conference that the Buffalo Sabres had bought out Kennedy's contract for $333,333. The reported monetary difference between Kennedy's arbitration ruling and the Sabres' contract offer was $200,000.

On August 30, 2010, Kennedy signed a one-year contract with the New York Rangers for a reported $550,000. At the start of the season and no place within the Rangers roster, Kennedy was waived again, this time by the Rangers, on October 5, 2010. After clearing waivers again, he was then sent to the Rangers' AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack, on October 13.[1] On February 26, 2011, Kennedy was traded by the Rangers along with a third round pick to the Florida Panthers in exchange for Bryan McCabe.[2]

On January 26, 2012, he was traded from the Florida Panthers to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for Sean Sullivan.[3]

The following year, on July 11, 2013, Kennedy signed as a free agent to a one-year, two-way deal with the Phoenix Coyotes.[4] In the 2013–14 season, Kennedy appeared in 37 games for the Coyotes, his most in the NHL since 2010. As a depth forward, he contributed from the lower lines with 2 goals and 8 points.

On July 3, 2014, Kennedy continued his journeyman career in signing as a free agent on a familiar one-year, two-way deal with the Washington Capitals.[5] He was assigned to AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears for the duration of the 2014–15 season, featuring in the AHL All-Star game and posting 59 points in 75 games.

On June 3, 2015, Kennedy signed a one-year contract with Russian club, HC Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk of the KHL for the 2015–16 season.[6] Kennedy described the experience in Nizhnekamsk as a poor fit for him; he was unable to adapt to the Soviet Union-era coaching regimen and the city's strict military environment (which prevented him from bringing his family to Russia), and partway through the season, the club bought out his contract. He finished the season in Finland, playing for Jokerit, which he considered a much more pleasant experience; he intended to return to North America for the 2016–17 season, most likely in the AHL,[7] but eventually moved to Sweden, signing a one-year deal with Luleå HF of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) on July 21, 2016.[8]

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
2003–04 Sioux City Musketeers USHL 56 9 10 19 42 7 2 2 4 6
2004–05 Sioux City Musketeers USHL 54 30 31 61 112 13 6 11 17 18
2005–06 Michigan State University CCHA 29 4 15 19 31 — — — — —
2006–07 Michigan State University CCHA 42 18 25 43 49 — — — — —
2007–08 Michigan State University CCHA 42 20 23 43 50 — — — — —
2008–09 Portland Pirates AHL 73 18 49 67 51 5 0 1 1 2
2008–09 Buffalo Sabres NHL 1 0 0 0 0 — — — — —
2009–10 Buffalo Sabres NHL 78 10 16 26 50 6 1 2 3 4
2010–11 Hartford Wolf Pack/CT Whale AHL 53 12 30 42 44 — — — — —
2010–11 Rochester Americans AHL 14 0 7 7 8 — — — — —
2010–11 Florida Panthers NHL 6 0 1 1 0 — — — — —
2011–12 San Antonio Rampage AHL 18 3 6 9 18 — — — — —
2011–12 Florida Panthers NHL 27 1 1 2 4 — — — — —
2011–12 Worcester Sharks AHL 35 10 21 31 26 — — — — —
2012–13 Worcester Sharks AHL 37 13 24 37 14 — — — — —
2012–13 San Jose Sharks NHL 13 2 0 2 2 3 0 0 0 2
2013–14 Portland Pirates AHL 30 4 11 15 14 — — — — —
2013–14 Phoenix Coyotes NHL 37 2 6 8 4 — — — — —
2014–15 Hershey Bears AHL 75 11 48 59 56 10 3 5 8 10
2015–16 HC Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk KHL 29 1 4 5 20 — — — — —
2015–16 Jokerit KHL 18 3 6 9 8 6 0 0 0 4
NHL totals 162 15 24 39 60 9 1 2 3 6

International

Year Team Event Result GP G A Pts PIM
2010 United States WC 13th 6 1 0 1 0
Senior totals 6 1 0 1 0

Awards and honors

Award Year
All-NCAA All-Tournament Team 2007 [9]
All-CCHA Second Team 2007-08

References

  1. ↑ "Rangers' Tim Kennedy is stuck in minors because of NHL's complicated waiver system". Nydailynews.com. 2011-02-26. Retrieved 2011-02-26.
  2. ↑ "Panthers trade McCabe to Rangers for Kennedy, third-rounder". The Sports Network. 2011-02-26. Retrieved 2011-02-26.
  3. ↑ "Panthers Send Kennedy to Sharks for Sullivan". The Sports Network. 2012-01-26. Retrieved 2012-01-26.
  4. ↑ "Coyotes sign center Kennedy to one-year contract". The Sports Network. 2013-07-11. Retrieved 2013-07-11.
  5. ↑ "Capitals sign Tim Kennedy and Kris Newbury". MonumentalNetwork.com. 2014-07-04. Retrieved 2014-07-04.
  6. ↑ "Nizhnekamsk has signed American forward" (in Russian). HC Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk. 2015-06-03. Retrieved 2015-06-03.
  7. ↑ "Season in Russia became nightmare for South Buffalo's Tim Kennedy". Olean Times Herald. May 18, 2016. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
  8. ↑ "Två nordamerikanska centrar till LHF". Retrieved 2016-07-21.
  9. ↑ "NCAA Frozen Four Records" (PDF). NCAA.org. Retrieved 2013-06-19.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/23/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.