Nashville GM made it easy for Flyers, Timonen & Hartnell

It isn't often that a general manager makes it easy for his free agents to be signed away.

But that's what happened last weekend, according to both Kimmo Timonen and Scott Hartnell, who have agreed to terms of 6-year deals with the Flyers a full 2 weeks ahead of when they would have become unrestricted free agents.

The rights to the players were traded by Nashville's general manager, David Poile. He not only allowed the Flyers to talk to his players ahead of time but told the Flyers that, faced with increasing losses of revenue and the pending sale of the team to an owner who appears to want to move it to Canada, he would not be able to resign Timonen and Hartnell.

"The way it went for me, it was last Friday night, and [Poile] called me and he said, 'This is the phone call I never wanted to do and everything is up in the air,' " Timonen said yesterday.

"I got the feeling he didn't know what's going to happen and he believed they were not going to have the chance to sign me back, so he decided to let me go."

Poile gave the same advice to Hartnell and then plugged the Flyers, telling him how interested they were in him.

"He told me this team has been calling for weeks wanting to have this chance, this window of opportunity to get you," Hartnell said.

It was an unusual move for another general manager to make, even if he was going to get a first- round draft pick in return. But what it really amounts to is a sign that hockey in Nashville may be over.

The pending sale of the team from current owner Craig Leipold to Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie is awaiting approval by the NHL Board of Governors.

The sale is expected to go through and unless the team averages 14,000 in paid attendance next season, Balsillie will move the team to Hamilton, Ontario.

"Under the circumstances, it's going to be very difficult to sign our free agents because of the market, their demands, the amount of years they want and the amount of dollars they want," Poile said Monday. "So in all probability, we're not going to be re-signing our top free agents."

So Nashville's loss is the Flyers' gain. Both players said they are excited to be relocating to Philadelphia. Timonen, because both his brother Jussi and his lifelong friend and current business partner Sami Kapanen play for the Flyers, and both players because of what general manager Paul Holmgren told them of his plans for the team.

"Talking to Mr. Holmgren, he was really pumped up to have a style of player that I am and the hard work that I bring every night to help build a solid franchise again and have a winning team," Hartnell said.

"I told him the biggest thing is I want to win, I want to win fast, and I want to win for a number of years, and he really admired that and I think the city of Philadelphia will admire that.

"He told me he wants a winner. The team, the city, they want and deserve a winner and I think going there, showing that Kimmo and I signed, is a good sign.

"We called [Holmgren] a couple of times each day to find out what was going on, where they were in the process, are we going to be good? It was kind of a weird process. I decided Sunday night I was going to go and Kimmo decided Monday morning.

"I said, 'Let's do it and take a leap of faith in the team.' Looking on paper, the young guys have a lot of heart, a lot of speed, guys who can play tough, [goalie Martin] Biron in net, it's looking like a great club and it was easy for me to decide."

Timonen said much the same thing.

"It started right away," he said. "I talked to my brother and I talked to Sami right away. There were so many positive things about this city of Philadelphia and the Flyers.

"They had a bad year last year but I believe that we can turn it around and have a really good team next year. The one big thing was maybe getting a couple of more players before the start of the season, and talking to Holmgren he said he was going to do everything he can to get a couple more guys, and if he can do that we're going to have a really good team.

"He told me he was going to try to get a first-line centerman and hopefully he's going to be able to do that," Timonen said. "After that conversation, it was a pretty easy choice.'' *