2022-23 Player Review: Rasmus Ristolainen is at least an NHL Defenseman

Rasmus Ristolainen entered this past season with far and away one of the worst contracts for a defenseman in the NHL.

His 5.1 million dollar cap hit was an eye-watering amount for a player that some had (rightfully) said was incapable of actually playing at the NHL level. He was acquired in a trade that may go down as one of the worst in Flyers history, and that hampered him from the get go with both fans and media. Even worse given that he was also largely awful during his time in Buffalo, and was overrated by some traditionalists around the league because he had a largely sought after right handed shot, and was tall and like to hit.

There was no reason for Chuck Fletcher to ever acquire him in the first place, but he’s here now, and he isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. So it was up to the player himself to try and make the most of the situation.

Ristolainen had the task of singlehandedly justifying one of the more boneheaded moves in NHL history, and quite simply he does not have the ability to do such. To an extent it’s almost like the Oilers trading a future league MVP in Taylor Hall, straight up for Adam Larsson. It’s not entirely Larsson’s fault he was traded for a player much more talented and valuable than him, but unfortunately it still naturally puts a burden on his shoulders to perform to a level that for him is near-impossible in order to somewhat justify the decision.

It was a horrible move, and the likelihood that Risto ever lives up to the billing of his contract and the price Fletcher paid for him is exceedingly slim. Realistically, it would be better for him and his cap to disappear entirely, but to give credit to Rasmus, he is trying to make the best out of this scenario by taking feedback and trying to fill whatever roles John Tortorella puts him in.

Three Questions

Did they live up to expectations?

This year was a bit of a rebound for Ristolainen. Not that he became some sort of Finnish Chris Pronger overnight or anything, but he did attempt to improve and simplify his game in a way that helped the team.

That being said, the expectations set after his first disaster season as a Flyer were so low that it was almost impossible for him not to meet them. There definitely was a decrease in his penchant for going all out for a big hit that left him out of position. But it also lead to him seeing a heavy decrease in his hitting output from his first Flyers campaign, which was down from 230 to 162.

His 41.9% Corsi-For percentage was one of his worst marks of his career, which is saying a lot considering how poor he was at some times in the past. He also went 27 straight games to start the season without a point, and it took him until after New Year’s Day to score his first goal. Only 37.7% of his zone starts were in the offensive zone, as opposed to 62.3% in the defensive zone, which is the largest disparity of his career. While that probably hurt his point total as well, he started in the D-zone so often because he cannot really create offense consistently for himself or others.

I want to be kind to Risto, because I really do think he improved his play a bit overall and got smarter on the back end, but man there is still a lot to be desired. How he avoided a point for so long was almost mystifying at times, and there was still that mistake or misplay in him at any moment.

What can we expect from them next season?

There is not much more that Rasmus Ristolainen can provide at the NHL level. He will hit some guys, block some shots, and… not much else.

He was acquired largely because the front office thought there was some potential that had yet to be tapped into due to a bad Sabres organization, (who are looking a lot better now, by the way) not deploying or coaching him correctly. It is pretty clear now that those illusions have been dropped, this is who he is, and this is who he will be.

He actually had four straight 40+ point campaigns from 2015-2018, but he seems to have lost much of that puck moving ability somewhere along the way. Without that skill returning in some form, his potential for success is tapped.

It is hard to see a situation where he can be traded without a large hunk of his contract being retained, which at that point wouldn’t be worth the headache. A buyout is technically possible, but it seems redundant for a rebuilding team and man, it would hurt cap-wise. I’d expect a lot more Ristolainen in the orange and black for the time being.

How do we grade their 2022-23 season?

As I said before, I don’t want to rag on Ristolainen too much because he was teed up by Chuck Fletcher to be hated from the day he put on the sweater. But the simple fact is, he just isn’t that great of an NHL defenseman. He has a very limited skillset and that prohibits him from really ever impacting the game all that much ina positive manner. Even if he played his role to near-perfection, we’re still talking about a player who is probably just a worse version of Radko Gudas.

And for 5.1 million dollars, that’s just not going to cut it. The Flyers defensemen were a poor unit this year and that certainly didn’t help his case, but in all honesty Nick Seeler played Risto’s role better on a night-in, night-out basis. And he was almost totally out of the league before this season started.

At that point you just have to concede that Rasmus Ristolainen, no matter how far you move the goalposts, just simply wasn’t good enough.

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