Flyers NHL Trade Deadline Candidates: Rasmus Ristolainen
The Philadelphia Flyers have slipped in the Eastern Conference playoff race approaching the NHL Trade Deadline. Will the rebuilding organization choose to be sellers for the fifth season in a row?
Danny Briere and the Philadelphia front office will continue to work the phones leading up to the deadline on March 7 at 3pm Eastern time.
Related Content: 4 Future Indicators Emerge From Flyers, Flames Trade
The Flyers will most likely pursue additional flexibility for future large-scale moves by making small-scale moves in March to shuffle veterans on the 2024-25 team who don’t have as much impact on the big picture of the rebuild.
- Scott Laughton
- Rasmus Ristolainen
- Erik Johnson
- Andrei Kuzmenko
Rasmus Ristolainen
There was a time in the not so distant past that Ristolainen looked like a financial albatross playing a major part in Philadelphia’s sentence in salary cap jail.
He progressively played himself into conversations as one of the 10 best available players at the NHL Trade Deadline.
The 6-foot-4 Finn has sacrificed some of the physicality that made him one of the most feared hitters in the NHL during his eight-year stint with the Buffalo Sabres. Flyers assistant coach Brad Shaw has encouraged a more defensively responsible game instead over the past three seasons.
John Tortorella has also pushed Ristolainen to use his above average mobility this season to help drive Philadelphia’s transition offense.
“I think he has taken some of the coaching and tried to get better. Sometimes when you have a veteran guy – and some new things are brought in or maybe you’re pushed along the way – the stubbornness takes over.” -John Tortorella
Despite playing a larger role as a point producer early in his career, Ristolainen averaged only 20 points per 82 games over his first three and a half seasons since Chuck Fletcher acquired him in 2021.
Ristolainen has struggled to stay in the lineup the past two seasons. However, he sat out the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off and reentered the lineup for the Flyers on February 22.
NHL Trade Deadline Value
Ristolainen’s contract carries a $5.1 million annual cap hit through 2026-27. Any team that acquires him pay him a prorated rate for the rest of the 2024-25 season, and the Flyers are unlikely to retain any salary.
However, at age 30, he provides market value for a second-pair defenseman. The mystery of a 6-foot-4 defenseman who has never appeared in a game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs over 12 seasons appeals to contenders wondering what the height of his intensity might look like in a gritty seven-game series.
Danny Briere acknowledged Ristolainen’s trade candidacy in January.
“There’s teams that have called to inquire, but Risto(lainen) has been so good, too for us. He’s not a rental. Now for us, there’s no rush to trade him. We finally have him healthy. You finally have him playing extremely well. To find a right shot D like that to play in your top four, to play as physical as he does, they’re tough to find… I mean, we get excited about trading and thinking about the kind of return we can get, but I’m not shopping him. I’m not trying to get rid of him.” -Danny Briere
It’s reasonable for the Flyers to expect a first-round pick in return for Ristolainen given the high demand at the NHL Trade Deadline, especially considering teams who pursue the best available players are also the most likely to pick towards the end of the first round.
Briere must decide if he’d rather load up his growing arsenal of early-round draft picks at the 2025 NHL Draft or keep a player who provides immediate value for a rebuilding team. Briere’s chance to maintain leverage with a player under contract through 2027 also gives him flexibility to push a potential decision to the offseason.
However, it’s hard to imagine the perfect confluence of health, effective play on the ice, and the desire that contenders have for a player of Ristolainen’s style repeating itself at a later time during the remaining tenure of his deal.
Verdict: GO
