Since the Chuck Fletcher era trade that brought Rasmus Ristolainen to Philadelphia, the burly Finnish defenseman has been a reclamation project for John Tortorella and company. He’s been a pretty polarizing player since he arrived here, with analytics-forward fans frustrated by the trade for a player with awful advanced metrics in Buffalo, and a group of old hockey men absolutely gushing over Ristolainen’s heavy style of play.
Really, though, Ristolainen’s time in Philadelphia has been somewhere in the middle – and to the organization’s credit, they’ve gotten the absolute most out of Ristolainen. The main problem? Ristolainen has caught a case of the injury bug, despite rehabilitating his on-ice play to a solid result.
The beginning and end of Ristolainen’s season was cut into by injuries, as a reaggravation of an injury late in training camp pushed his season debut into late November.
When he did return, though, he played pretty well overall in third-pair minutes, about all you can ask for from Ristolainen. Primarily with rookie Egor Zamula, the third-pair worked to a break-even 50.67 CF%, but only a 37.3 GF%. Ristolainen scored his lone goal of the season in a New Year’s Eve loss in Calgary, finishing off a nice play from Ryan Poehling.
Simply put, the opposition scored slightly more goals when Ristolainen was on the ice than when he was off of it, but Ristolainen didn’t really deserve that fate. A nearly 57% expected goals for and 58.75% high danger chances for percentage deserved a more than break-even goals output for Ristolainen and the Flyers.
The 31 games of Ristolainen in 23-24 really show the best case scenario for his play – a pretty low-event hockey player that doesn’t make a lot of mistakes, but also doesn’t have a whole lot happening offensively. A quintessential third pair defenseman, really.
Ristolainen isn’t really a player whose individual rates are going to wow you, he’s about what you would expect for a player in his spot in the lineup. Especially at 5-on-5, there wasn’t a whole lot happening in his 31 games of ice-time.
Three Questions
Did they live up to expectations?
The short answer is, Ristolainen did live up to what was expected of him in the games which he played. He slotted primarily into a pair with rookie Egor Zamula, where the pair drove play and had the majority of the expected goals for. That’s about as good as you can expect from a third pair, especially one where Ristolainen was saddled with a mistake-prone rookie.
The problem, though, is how much value Ristolainen actually had considering his injuries. It’s simply hard to evaluate what could of been with Ristolainen’s season.
What can we expect from them next season?
If this question was asked prior to his season-ending injury, we might be talking more seriously about a Ristolainen offseason trade. It’s not that Ristolainen is particularly a must-trade asset, but the three years remaining on his contract remain a block to young defensemen in the pipeline. If Ristolainen was able to finish the season as strong as he began it, some desperate team might have bit on a deal.
Even now, Ristolainen is a part of a defense that also has Travis Sanheim and Jamie Drysdale on the right side, two guys who most certainly are not going anywhere. Add on to that Ronnie Attard pushing for a spot behind him, and the idea of trading Ristolainen makes even more sense.
I wouldn’t say to expect a trade, but I would expect the Flyers to seriously explore it, considering their short and long-term outlook on the right side.
If Ristolainen remains here, though, I’d expect more of the same. He’d likely anchor a third pair, break even in terms of play-driving, and be an acceptable, low-event hockey player.
How do we grade their 2023-24 season?
Considering the amount of time he played, the Ristolainen grade should fall somewhere near incomplete. He was fine to good when he was out there, but you have to show up to play to get a truly passing grade. Ristolainen barely passes the test here.
