The New York Islanders have acquired Tim Thomas in exchange for a conditional second rounder in 2014 or 2015. The Islanders need to get over the cap floor, so even though Thomas won't play this season, his salary has some value to them. Still, it will be interesting to see if the Islanders toll his contract in the hope that he will play for them in 2013-14.

Tim Thomas was signed by BOS on Friday January 18.

The Bruins will officially designate Tim Thomas a suspended player shortly this morning. The club will be responsible for carrying the goaltender's $5 million prorated cap number, but he will not receive his $3 million in remaining salary. "We want to do it in a non-adversarial way," GM Peter Chiarelli said of suspending Thomas. "I've talked to the agent. We'll agree to some type of set of facts. That will be it." Under the new CBA all the teams are above the $44 million cap floor, so Thomas won't be traded to another seeking to add salary. In the summer, the Bruins will face the decision to either toll Thomas' contract for another season or allow him to become an unrestricted free agent.

Tim Thomas has interest in returning to the NHL in 2013-14. Thomas would also like to represent Team USA in the 2014 Olympics, but that's complicated. The NHL hasn't committed to playing in the Winter Games yet and Team USA might not take the aging goaltender after he skipped a season. If the NHL doesn't agree to play in the games then you might assume that Thomas would actually have the option of simply not playing in the NHL and joining Team USA as one of the few NHL-caliber players still on the squad, but that might not be the case. While his contract will end this season, the Boston Bruins are suspending him and have the option to toll his contract. In other words, the Bruins can control his rights for the 2013-14 campaign if they wish because he refused to play this season. If he does come back next season, it sounds like his preference is to play in Boston.

Boston Bruins' GM Peter Chiarelli confirmed this morning that Tim Thomas will not be coming to camp or playing this year. "We'll end up suspending him. He will be on our cap unless I trade him," said Chiarelli. However, he did mentionned that Thomas wants to play next season. Starting goaltender Tuukka Rask is now a top-10 fantasy goalie option in every format with top-5 upside.

It appears that the lockout hasn't softened Tim Thomas' stance on taking a break from the game. TSN's Bob McKenzie does say that the door has been left open for him to change his mind. Thomas' decision comes at an odd time in many ways, not the least of which is the fact that he's an aging goalie in the last season of a lucrative contract. If he snapped out of it, he could be a solid trade target for teams with short-term interests.

According to several sources, Tim Thomas sat in on one of the NHLPA's recent conference calls. The Boston goaltender has remained silent during the NHL lockout, while spending time with his family back in Colorado. Leading into the 2012-13 season, there were plenty of trade rumors involving Thomas after he decided to take the year off to focus on "friends, faith and family." If the contract regulations in the expired CBA carry over into the new one then his contract with the Bruins will be expired and he'll look for a job elsewhere since he has expressed an interest in playing for the United States at the 2014 Winter Olympics. As it turns out, he picked a pretty good year to take off.

Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas made another political statement on his Facebook page on Thursday, supporting American sandwich chain Chick-fil-A. The chain's owner Dan Cathy, has drawn plenty of backlash for funding organizations fighting same-sex marriage and was recently quoted saying he supported, "the biblical definition of the family unit." "I stand with Chick-fil-A," wrote Thomas on his Facebook account. "Chick-fil-A is privately owned by the Cathy family. The company president, Dan Cathy, drew the wrath of gay rights advocates and supporters when he made recent statements that some have alleged are anti-gay. Cathy told Baptist Press that the company was unapologetically in favor of traditional marriage. 'Guilty as charged,' he said. 'We are very much supportive of the family - the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.' In a separate interview on the Ken Coleman Show - Cathy suggested that the nation could face God's wrath over the redefinition of marriage."

Boston coach Claude Julien isn't shedding tears about the likely departure of goalie Tim Thomas from the Bruins. "Well, you know, we lost a guy by the name of Marc Savard who led our team in scoring every year and we were able to adapt," Julien said. I see (Thomas going AWOL) as the same kind of a challenge. There's no doubt, nobody's going to deny what Tim's done here for our hockey club over the years. But we've mentioned that Tuukka (Rask) is a very capable goaltender. He's got his opportunity to showcase that this year." Julien also spoke highly of Anton Khudobin, the Bruins' likely No. 2 goalie next season. "I honestly have a lot of confidence in our goaltending," Julien said. "And, you know, obviously we drafted, we've signed a few goaltenders as well. I think our depth is there. I don't really see that as an issue. And that's because I have the confidence in what I have in front of me right now."

Although the news has only recently become public, Tim Thomas apparently waived his no-trade clause at least a week ago. Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli has emphasized that Thomas still doesn't plan on playing. The only thing any club that takes Thomas would be getting - unless the Bruins throw in an extra player to sweeten the deal - is Thomas' $5 million cap hit. While that might sound like a silly thing to want, a team having difficulty reaching the salary cap floor might be interested in it.