Beating the proverbial drum that is Rasmus Ristolainen is a boring play. He played himself out of Buffalo before being traded to Philadelphia in the summer and because of the price of acquisition, there has been a large target on his back. A lot of it is warranted, don’t get me wrong, I for one was not pleased by the 5-year extension that was handed out, but that has more to do with the direction of the team rather than the player himself.
Plain and simple, the Philadelphia Flyers are bad and are going to be bad for a few years based on the path they’ve been on and are still continuing to traverse. General manager Chuck Fletcher and Governor Dave Scott believe they’re on the right path because they have a good foundation to build around. Injuries have hampered their success, COVID has played its part, but the fundamentals of this team are backwards and are holding them back from true success.
The money that Ristolainen signed for isn’t bad at all. In terms of market value, what he was previously making, and what he could’ve earned on the open market, he actually did take somewhat of a pay-cut to stay in Philadelphia. The rumoured 6-year deal worth $38 million that he supposedly rejected, was apparently debunked by Elliotte Friedman and only made it that much clearer when he signed for 5 years at $5.1 million AAV, which is a little less than he is currently signed for at the moment.
The term is problematic in a sense because that’s a move you make when you’re contending or re-tooling under the right circumstances. It seems like there’s real desperation in the front office right now and maybe that has to do with Fletcher’s job security. He isn’t going to get fired this year and he will be handed the keys for at least another season but if he fumbles the bag again, I can almost assure he won’t survive much of 2022-23. In order to keep his job safe, at least for the time being, re-tooling and making aggressive moves is the way to do it. High-risk, high-reward if you can pull it off but based on his history and the how the Flyers have fared recently that would be like pulling a needle out a haystack.
Everyone knows what kind of player Ristolainen is, everyone knows what he brings to the table, and he will not surprise you, good or bad. He is a physical defenseman, who likes to play aggressive to a point where he will get caught on a bad pinch, or get caught finishing a check, or be called for an unnecessary penalty. He is also a defenseman, who will make teams think twice when he’s on the ice, can skate decently well for a player his size, has a booming slap-shot when utilized, and can pop offensively when given the opportunity.
His analytical numbers are off-the-charts bad but there are a lot of people that defy and will continue to look the other way from analytical data. People like the “meat and potatoes” of what Ristolainen brings to the Flyers and he would be looked at differently if he wasn’t acquired for a first round pick, second round pick, and a player during the summer. It only makes things worse when he is then subsequently signed in a season where you should’ve traded him for futures in a market that is foaming at the mouth for right-hand shooting defensemen with snarl and grit.
Teams are always willing to spend big money and assets on players of his ilk, and that was recognized this summer when Fletcher and others acknowledged the bidding war that ensued for his services. The Flyers landed Ristolainen solely based on the fact that they carried the better first round pick. Fletcher admitted that he has attempted to acquire him in the past and he had spent the better part of the last 2 years trying to bring him to Philadelphia. He said that he was willing to trade the first round pick for a player that would help and impact the team for the long-term, which at the time wasn’t Ristolainen since he was an expiring contract at the end of the 2021-22 season.
When it came to rumours concerning the plethora of expiring contracts on the Flyers, one name was generally absent in terms of trade rumours and that was Ristolainen. We had heard everything there was to know about Claude Giroux, we’ve heard about teams and offers for players like Martin Jones and Justin Braun, and even players signed through next year have been rumoured in trades but Ristolainen was a constant absentee.
Fletcher stuck by his word all year long, trying his best to get the extension completed before the trade deadline. There were rumours left and right about Ristolainen’s unhappiness with the state of the team and wanting to finally play in playoff hockey. That Ristolainen’s camp was willing to gamble on the notion that he would thrive in playoff atmosphere, so much so that he could bring up his value on the open market. Whether those rumours are true remains to be seen because as of last Thursday, he signed an extension that keeps him on the team until the end of 2026-27.
The Flyers only had around $14 million in open cap space going into the summer even with players like Giroux, Ristolainen, and others coming off the books. However, the extensions for Sean Couturier and Joel Farabee kick in, where the former goes from making $4.33 million AAV to $7.75 for the next 8 years. The latter goes from his rookie contract to making $5 million AAV for the next 6 years. With Ristolainen signed at $5.1 million AAV, the Flyers will have around $8 million to operate with a lot of empty roster spots. Some of those can be filled with players currently in the minors but with terms like “aggressive re-tool” being thrown around, a lot of players have been thrown into the fire.
Travis Konecny, who has 3 years left at $5.5 million AAV, has been the subject of trade rumours for a few seasons now. He was approached by Fletcher over the summer, where he was told that he could’ve been dealt had the Flyers given up on him; giving him a vote of confidence moving forward. This year hasn’t been the best for the young forward but he has turned things around since the firing of Alain Vigneault.
Another player mixed into rumours for well over a year is Travis Sanheim, who is signed through another year at $4.675 million. Sanheim has arguably been the Flyers’ best defenseman and has also turned his season around after the mid-season coaching change. He is the most noticeable (in a good way) defenseman, always joining the rush, creating scoring opportunities, and is skating a lot better. The true cherry on top of the cake for Sanheim’s 2021-22 season would be playing on the man-advantage; something Mike Yeo has hinted at but hasn’t given a date or time for when that can happen.
Friedman mentioned that the Flyers are looking to drastically re-model their defense and extending Ristolainen for another 5 years was the first domino to fall. They already have Ryan Ellis in the fold for the next 5 seasons as well, Sanheim seems poised to return next year barring a trade, and there’s hope for players like Cam York and Egor Zamula to make that jump.
One name that wasn’t mentioned was Ivan Provorov as he has become public enemy number one. His play has dropped, rumours circulating about how he’s tough to coach and has thrown teammates under the bus have become rampant, and if the Flyers want drastic changes to occur, trading a player like Provorov would fit that bill. He’s very skilled, very talented, and has the potential to be something special but hasn’t shown that in the last two seasons. The number of players that are safe going into the off-season is very low and the number keeps dropping by the losses.
If this was any other team, with how bad they’ve been playing, where they are situated in the standings, and how desolate and bleak their future looks, that team would be rebuilding no question. It’s a tough pill to swallow when you have to commit to a rebuild but it seemingly takes stones to admit you need one in the first place. Philadelphia is the only place where a rebuild can never occur. They are constantly chasing a Stanley Cup they have no business in winning and as the years go by, they’re not any closer to that feat; in fact they’re straying further and further away.
The Ristolainen extension only shows the flaws in Philadelphia’s mindset and thought process. If this team was ready to make the jump, if they were ready to contend, and if they were conceivably a good team then his extension would make a lot more sense. However, we know that part of the reason he made the extension official and was hellbent on getting it done was because he knew how much he paid for his services over the summer and didn’t want to lose out on someone he was coveting after one failed season.
He’s banking on his upcoming re-tool to be the the saving grace for this franchise but what happens if he fumbles the bag again? Then you’re stuck in a lengthier rebuild than necessary with a player who will want out at some point. Fortunately his contract doesn’t hold a NTC or NMC, like a lot of Fletcher contracts hold, and the cap hit is manageable.
However, in saying all that, it’s in the past and we shall see how things unfold at the deadline and beyond. Ristolainen will remain a Flyer for the foreseeable future and we’re going to have to hear about him and his contract for a lot of that time. He will make mistakes, he will hit a lot people, he will keep the crease clear for Carter Hart, but he will also find himself as the scapegoat for a lot of misgiving deeds. He carries a larger target now because of the contract and whether any of it is warranted or not, let’s just let this season finish, see what Fletcher and company have under their sleeves during the summer, and then critique it to no end the following season.
2021-22 has been a lost season at least since January, maybe even before then, and anything that is currently taking place on the ice means very little until the 2022-23 season commences. No wins at this point is going to carry into the next season, no extra motivation from a comeback win will carry into next season, and anything they do right now to “try and flip the script” isn’t going to have any effect moving past April 29th.
Mike Yeo will most likely not return next year as head coach, there’s going to be a lot of personnel turnover over the summer and carrying into the new season, so how will anything they’re currently doing – good or bad – have an effect on 2022-23? It’s a cliché players have to say during their pre-game or post-game interviews but with so many question marks heading into the summer, let’s hold off on the Ristolainen beat-down for the time being and see what Fletcher does to build around his “first domino”.
We’ve heard about the good and the bad since Thursday, we are entitled to how we see the player and what we like or dislike about him, but constantly blaming him for gaffes or trying to go out of your way to justify the signing is like beating a dead horse.
