Tim Thomas (ice hockey)
Timothy James Thomas Jr. ( born April 15, 1974 in Flint, Michigan) is an American professional ice hockey goaltender who stands since March 2014 with the Dallas Stars in the National Hockey League contract.
- 2.1 International
- 3.1 International
Career
Thomas began his career on the Davison High School Big Nine and later played in the American college hockey for the University of Vermont. He was pulled in place of 217 NHL Entry Draft by the Quebec Nordiques in 1994. The 1997/98 season brought him for the first time to the European professional hockey, for HIFK Helsinki of the Finnish SM- liiga. During the season, he returned to North America and completed some matches in the lower leagues. The rest of the season he spent again at HIFK, came to a total of 18 missions and it was with his crew Finnish Champion. The following season he experienced there.
1999/2000 he played again in North America at the Detroit Vipers of the International Hockey League. He then played for AIK Stockholm in the Swedish Elitserien and moved to the next season in the Finnish SM- liiga to the Kärpät Oulu. 2002/ 03 he was appointed Keeper of the Providence Bruins, the AHL farm team of the Boston Bruins. This season, he was able to complete four games for Boston in the NHL, but he could not, despite three wins and a catch rate of 90.7 percent qualify for a place in the narrower squad and spent the 2003/04 season back in Providence.
The 2004/05 season led him due to the lockout again back to Finland, where he all 54 games for Jokerit Helsinki stood as the undisputed number one in goal. He reached 15 shutouts and was able to set a new league record. He also has experienced the highest rate of held shots. He reached with his team the playoff finals, where the Jokerit Helsinki but failed due to Oulu Kärpät and were runners-up. Thomas was in this season won the Kultainen - kypärä award as the best player selected by the players.
The 2005/06 season brought for Thomas 's breakthrough in the NHL. He was supposed to play the season with the Providence Bruins. But after the Boston Final Andrew Raycroft and Hannu Toivonen people turned out due to injury, Thomas became the new starter the Boston Bruins and convinced with good performances, for which he was honored by the fans in Boston with the 7th Player Award. Even after the return of Raycroft, who was able to present himself after his injury only disappointing, Thomas defended his role as a starter and got in March 2006 a three-year contract.
After the departure of Raycroft in the summer of 2006, Thomas played most of the season 2006/ 07 with Hannu Toivonen as a substitute and was one of the few bright spots in a weak team the Bruins. After the season, Boston committed with Manny Fernandez a new goalkeeper, but he left after a few games because of an injury long run. Thomas took the chance to prove himself, had for a long time the best fishing quota the league and was re-nominated after the cancellation of Martin Brodeur for the NHL All-Star Game. In the 2008 / 09 season, Thomas continued his consistently good performances and reached with a catch rate of 93.3 percent a personal high score during the regular season. Thus he led the league wide statistics and was classified with a Gegentorschnitt of 2.10 on the first rank. In April 2009, he extended his end of the season expiring contract with the Boston Bruins for another four years for a total of around 20 million U.S. dollars.
At season's end, Thomas was first awarded in his career with the Vezina Trophy as the best goalkeeper of the year and also won the William M. Jennings Trophy as the goalie with 25 missions, whose team have conceded the fewest goals in the regular season, along with his teammates Manny Fernandez. During the season 2010/11 he took part for the third time in a row at the NHL All-Star Game. This season saw Thomas with a catch quota of 93.8 percent and broke the previous record of 93.7 percent NHL, the Dominik Hašek had set up in 1998/ 99 as the goalkeeper of the Buffalo Sabres.
Although Thomas meanwhile showed some weaker games against Tampa Bay and Montreal in the playoffs, prevailed above all his outstanding performance in the series against Philadelphia and in the final series against the Vancouver Canucks. In the final series, he had a save rate of over 96 percent and a Gegentorschnitt 1.15 goals per game, both of which are record figures in modern hockey. About the whole playoffs away Thomas was able to record a save rate of 94 percent and conceded an average of just 1.98 goals per game. With a 4-0 shutout victory in game seven in Vancouver Thomas was the first time the Stanley Cup win. In addition, he was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as far the oldest player in the history of the NHL.
In addition to his outstanding performances in the playoffs booked Thomas diverse NHL playoff records, like most fended off shots in a playoff season ( 798 ) or three elimination -game wins ( game seven wins). As a second goalkeeper in the history of the NHL after Bernie Parent in 1974 and 1975, he won in the same season both the Stanley Cup Conn Smythe Trophy and the Vezina Trophy and.
In the 2012/13 season, he took a break from hockey. In February 2013, the Bruins finally offered its players' rights to the New York Islanders, for which he, however, was not used. Instead, he wrote in the following season one-year contract with the Florida Panthers. On March 5, 2014 he was transferred to the Dallas Stars.
Internationally
Thomas was in the squad of Team USA at the World Championships in 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2005 and 2008. Moreover, he took the Team USA at the Olympic Winter Games in 2010 and won the silver medal after the final defeat against Team Canada.
Awards and achievements
- 2009 NHL All-Star Game
- 2009 NHL First All -Star Team
- 2009 Vezina Trophy
- 2009 William M. Jennings Trophy (together with Manny Fernandez )
- 2011 NHL All-Star Game
- 2011 Stanley Cup win with the Boston Bruins
- 2011 Conn Smythe Trophy
- 2011 Vezina Trophy
- 2011 NHL First All -Star Team
- 2011 NHL Player of the Month for November
- 2012 NHL All-Star Game
Internationally
Career Stats
Internationally
( Key to Career statistics: Sp or GP = Games Played, T or G = goals scored, V or A = achieved assists; Pts or Pts = scored points scorer, SM or PIM = received penalty minutes, / - = Plus / Minus balance sheet; PP = scored majority gates; SH = scored shorthanded goals, GW = achieved victory gates; Play-downs/Relegation 1 )