NHL | What has happened to Rasmus Ristolainen? Suomalaistahtih opens with a career turning point: “It was a wake-up call”

of the NHL the traditional transfer deadline is a good three weeks away, and the rumor mill is running wild.

One of the players who have been in trade rumors is from the Philadelphia Flyers Rasmus Ristolainen.

According to reports, the leading team of the league Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs are interested in the services of the experienced Finnish defenseman.

“Share, or that there have been similar ones. I don't know about these and I have no smell. Transfers belong to this category”, Ristolainen smiles.

Ristolainen is used to this. The transfer deadline looms on the horizon and transfer speculations are swirling around the defender from Turku.

“Those rumors have been around for so many years that no attention is paid to them anyway. These are things that cannot be controlled. In this business, transfers are always on that side.”

Ristolainen, 29, playing his eleventh season in the NHL, was already in the middle of transfer rumors while playing for the Buffalo Sabres.

In July 2021, Ristolainen had to experience for the first time in his career what it feels like to be traded, when Buffalo traded him to his current club, Philadelphia.

In those days, Ristolainen was not a hot item on the market. He had one season left on his six-year, $32.4 million deal at the time. The contract's average salary of 5.4 million did not correspond to the current level.

Since then, in Philadelphia, Ristolainen has had to go through quite a bit of Jaakob's wrestling about what kind of player he is in the NHL of the 2020s.

Last in the season there was some kind of enlightenment, when Ristolainen had to experience standing command at the very beginning of the season.

“It was a wake-up call. The games went to hell and I was out of the game. Then it is said that there will be no game time. That's where the change started. After that, I started to catch up with what the coaching management wants to see from me,” Ristolainen explains.

After being put on the shelf, Ristolainen has played more consistently and redeemed the coaching's trust.

Ristolainen's playing time has stabilized at 16–18 minutes per match and he has become more clearly a defensive defender with a fiery spirit by John Tortorella under.

In Buffalo, Ristolainen was for a long time in the role of defender of the top pair, which was too hard to tick. In Philadelphia, he has profiled himself as a reliable triple-team player who brings solid defense and physicality to the rink with a disciplined approach.

“One bi
g change is that the racket can be used for things other than a cross racket and for moving balls. I used to play too much racket in two hands. It's a waste of energy if you keep trying to put idiots through plexiglass. There has been a lot of talk about the fact that you have to play with the bat in one hand and games are interrupted with the bat,” Ristolainen analysed.

“A lot has been focused on details. I have fixed my game and found my own identity as a player here. I feel that I am at my best age as a player and there is still room for improvement.”

A problem However, from the Flyers' point of view, the current contract may evolve.

Ristolainen is in the second season of his five-year, $25.5 million contract. The average salary of 5.1 million is unnecessarily hefty compared to the current role. Ristolainen's real market value is currently around three million.

If the Flyers intend to trade Ristolainen, the club will have to take part of the Finn's salary into their account.

In terms of play, there is enough demand for a strong basic defender like Ristolainen in teams aiming for the playoffs, if the salary does not burden the salary cap too much and the role is suitably limited.

However, situations are lively in the NHL. Ristolainen got a knock in the last match, which may require a lot of games and also affect trade rumors.

The Flyers next play the night before Friday in Toronto.

“I'm still not sure if I'll be able to join the trip. Small injury on top. Still a little bit open to see if there will be a flurry,” Ristolainen reports.

Ristolai himself has no reason to move elsewhere. He has enjoyed playing in Philadelphia and likes Tortorella's honest and demanding coaching style.

The team can do it too. The young Flyers are unexpectedly playing in the third playoff spot in the Metropolie division.

“There has been a good mood in the team throughout the season. The season started so well that we immediately saw at what level we can play. This has given us a clear understanding of how well we can play and how to win games. Our game system has been very clear from the beginning and everyone knows their role exactly.”

Ristolainen The power seasons (more than 40 points in four consecutive seasons from 2016 to 2019) are far behind, but the 192-centimeter and 100-kilogram defender still knows how to annoy opponents with his style of play.

Recently The Athletic asked the NHL players about the most annoying player in the series. The question was more precisely in the form of “which player would you like to punch in the face the most”.

Ristolainen collected one vote in an anonymous poll.

“Then something has been done right. I have not come across such polls. I only follow the futsuutis”, says Ristolainen, who is known as a fanatical Liverpool supporter.

“Maybe it annoys me when I can't speak my mouth on the field or respond to shouts. If there's a chance, I'll pull guys up and throw them from the front of the goal to the side, but playing with my mouth or snarling is not my job. Let others take care of that side.”

Rasmus Ristolainen has played a total of 713 games in the NHL (52+233=285). Picture: Sam Navarro/Reuters

Flyers the sensational season has also contained dark clouds. A couple of weeks ago, the Flyers' number one guard Carter Hart was left out of the team's activities.

Hart, 25, is one of four NHL players named as suspects in the rape scandal rocking Canadian hockey. A total of five players from the 2018 Canadian Junior World Cup gold team face charges of rape.

The sensitive issue was discussed briefly among the team.

“We have only been told that no one will comment on the matter in any way. I don't have any other information than that it's a serious thing as hell. None of us players are allowed to say a word more. Let's let things be resolved through the courts,” says Ristolainen.

Based on the results, Hart's situation has not affected the Flyers in any way.

Tortorella's hard-working bunch is currently on a four-game winning streak and is rocking in good positions in its own division.

“I have never been in a situation like this at this stage of the season before, where big games are played all the time and we are competing for a place in the playoffs. There is a big stake in every game,” says Ristolainen, who has not yet played in the NHL playoffs in his career.

The Flyers' probabilities of reaching the playoffs are high at this point, no less than 77.3 percent.

“You can't pop any champagne bottles or think about probabilities here. I remember one season in Buffalo around Christmas we had a 90 percent chance of making the playoffs. That's how it happened,” Ristolainen reminds.

“At this point, you can't take an exhalation. There are still games left in Pirusti and we have to fight until the end.”