The injury bug has reared its ugly head for Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen after the team announced he underwent surgery on his ruptured right triceps. He is expected to be sidelined for the next 6 months.
Ristolainen was in the midst of his best season with the Orange and Black before suffering the injury just ahead of the trade deadline. Despite interest levels rising, the Flyers weren’t looking to move on from the hulking Fin so soon, regardless of an injury or not.
He had 4 goals and 19 points in 63 games, held a plus-3 rating, only committed 14 PIM, averaged 20:31 TOI, and collected 94 blocked shots and 97 hits.
His estimated timeline of 6 months will have him missing training camp and possibly the start of the season, which would be the case for the 4th time in 5 seasons.
Since his arrival from Buffalo, Ristolainen has missed 90 games due to injury over the last 4 seasons, including 52 in 2023-24. Nevertheless, the former first round pick had seemingly turned the corner in recent years under the tutelage of John Tortorella and Brad Shaw.
So much so that his $5.1 million dollar AAV, which stretches out for the next 2 seasons, didn’t seem as much of a hindrance to rival teams anymore. Trade interest has ramped up in recent years with teams reportedly wanting the Flyers to eat as much as half in 2023-24 but that has since subdued to more a palatable request.
Slightly concerning is the fact that Ristolainen underwent season-ending surgery on his triceps last year as well. It was a three month recovery period and he was expected to be ready for training camp, which allowed him to make his first regular season debut for the Flyers in 4 years.
By the sounds of things, the Flyers are expecting to be without his services to start the year but with the draft and free agency upcoming, they shouldn’t be in hot water. On top of the fact they still have Cam York, Jamie Drysdale, Travis Sanheim, and Nick Seeler on the NHL roster.
Players like Egor Zamula and Emil Andrae will once again push for roster spots, which gives them some leeway heading into cap with a space open with Ristolainen’s absence. However, outside of those two there aren’t too many defensemen knocking on the door with prospects like Adam Ginning and Hunter McDonald seen as the next men up.
Nevertheless, if he is set to miss the start of the 2025-26 season, the Flyers will miss his physical presence, shot blocking acumen, and minute munching ways as he saw over 20 minutes of ATOI for the first time in 3 years, which included some time on the power play.
Ristolainen’s contract runs through the end of the 2026-27 season but with the salary cap rising exponentially over the next 3 years, we can fully expect trade conversations to pick back up if the Flyers remain in rebuilding mode.
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