Rasmus Ristolainen has gone through this whole rigamarole before. The defenseman’s name was uttered frequently in trade speculation as recently as a year ago before he ultimately remained on the Philadelphia Flyers’ roster.
But this year feels different. Ristolainen now has just one season left on his contract after this one, and his being signed through 2026-27 might even be viewed as a plus, considering how thin the upcoming free agent market is. As the salary cap increases, his $5.1 million AAV isn’t as cost prohibitive to potential suitors as it might have been previously.
Yes, Ristolainen has been hurt frequently throughout his career — including triceps surgery that cost him the final four weeks of last season and the first two months of this one — but at 31 years old, when healthy he can still effectively handle big minutes.
That was on full display at the Olympics. Ristolainen was outstanding for Team Finland, playing nearly 20 minutes a game and finishing with three assists, a plus-9 rating and just two penalty minutes for the bronze medalists. He was as important a cog as anyone on a team that outpaced expectations.
Ristolainen has never reached the Stanley Cup playoffs, despite sitting just three games from 800 in his NHL career. That he was able to raise his game in such a high-pressure situation was something he took pride in, he said this week. After all, he hasn’t gotten many opportunities to showcase that side of his hockey personality.
“Yeah, obviously it was good to see that,” Ristolainen said. “That’s always what I believed. I trust in myself (that) the bigger the stage is, I feel the better I perform.”
I asked him, too, how much he’s aching to finally taste NHL playoff hockey.
“Obviously, a lot,” said Ristolainen, now in his 13th year in the league. “I feel like that’s why you play the game. You want to win. That’s where I feel I’m at my best. In the tournament it was nice to play games that mean so much. (Every game) is a huge one, so really enjoyed that.”
There aren’t many players like Ristolainen, listed 14th on our most recent trade board, on the market. Other right-shot defensemen on the list include Dougie Hamilton, a polarizing player with a $9 million cap hit through 2027-28; Justin Faulk, who has a 15-team no-trade clause and isn’t viewed as all that physically imposing; and Luke Schenn, who’s nearing the end of his career.
So it’s not surprising that the Flyers have gotten calls on Ristolainen, who, as reported here last week, is a player the club would be open to moving for a return that would almost certainly have to start with a first-round draft pick just for general manager Daniel Briere to consider it.
And that ask is understandable. Briere has already established that he’s not going to be bullied in trade negotiations, as evidenced by the high bar it took to pry Scott Laughton away last year, when the Toronto Maple Leafs surrendered a 2027 first-round pick and Nikita Grebenkin. That’s important for him to maintain, as Briere continues to establish a reputation less than three full seasons in charge.
It’s likely that Briere is looking at the trade for Brandon Carlo last season, in which Toronto gave up to the Boston Bruins forward Fraser Minten, a 2026 first-round pick and 2027 fourth-round pick in exchange for the defenseman, who has many of the same attributes as Ristolainen. It’s not a perfect comparison, as Carlo is more than two years younger than Ristolainen, but it’s close enough.
It’s important to remember the Flyers’ philosophy here when it comes to making trades. Flyers president of hockey operations Keith Jones — like Briere, a longtime former NHL player — is cognizant of how such transactions play in the dressing room. Agree with it or not, that’s important to the duo when it comes to culture they’re trying to build.
“As players, you’re watching,” Jones told me last year. “You see so-and-so was moved. “(They know) we’re not as good because that player has left but recognize that what they got in return is more than worthwhile. … If you’re just giving people away for the sake of giving them away, that is going to bother players.”
So, no, if the Flyers are offered just a couple of mid-round draft picks for Ristolainen, don’t expect them to bite — even if they envision former first-round pick and right-shot defenseman Oliver Bonk possibly making the team out of training camp next season.
Further, the Flyers could use more high-end assets that they could potentially deal this summer, particularly after the decision to re-sign Christian Dvorak to a five-year contract extension. It’s an important offseason ahead for Briere, who will probably have to get creative in order to procure more high-end talent for a club that clearly needs more of it — particularly when it comes to their dire situation at center.
Because, make no mistake, the Flyers are willing to part with draft picks and/or prospects in the system in order to try and find a player or two who can help them in the immediate future. They have their full complement of picks in the first three rounds in each of the next three years, including two first-round picks in 2027, as well as a decent stable of mid-range prospects after drafting 12 players in the first two rounds over the last three years. Maybe they pull something off before the March 6 trade deadline, but it’s still more likely that comes this summer.
There was a moment on the ESPN broadcast on Thursday night, during the Flyers’ 3-2 overtime win over the Rangers, when play-by-play man Sean McDonough said Jones told him: “The Flyers aren’t looking to get younger.”
That probably set off some corners of the fan base that see a team that has won just four of its last 17 games and is likely to miss the playoffs for a sixth straight season, but the Flyers are currently the sixth-youngest team in the NHL, according to Elite Prospects. What Jones almost certainly meant is that the Flyers aren’t going to be dealing veterans they consider important — such as Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim, and maybe even Dan Vladar now, for example — for future draft picks or unproven prospects.
Instead, they’re going to be exploring what’s out there in exchange for their own picks and unproven prospects. They’re probably even willing to part with one or two young players who are on the roster now, too. They’ll probably have to.
In the meantime, the immediate focus will remain on Ristolainen, who may be the only Flyers player moved before the deadline.
“Obviously, those are things you can’t really control,” Ristolainen said. “You try to do your part, get better every day, and what happens, happens.”
