Will The Senators Circle Back On Flyers Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen?

In the summer of 2024, in his first offseason as GM of the Senators, Steve Staios put a large stamp on his hockey club.

Staios pulled off a deal to solve goaltending, getting Linus Ullmark, the goalie who had won the Vezina Trophy the season before. He also added winning experience, signing three veteran forwards – Michael Amadio, Nick Cousins, and David Perron – who all brought Stanley Cup-winning pedigree into the room.

But one of his other goals that summer was to rebalance the blue line. With Jake Sanderson, Thomas Chabot, and Jakob Chychrun, the Sens were top-heavy on the left side with a few too many offensive defensemen and not enough physical, defense-first defenders. 

So Staios traded Chychrun to Washington for Jensen and a third-round pick. Jensen wasn't overly physical, but he did play the shutdown role well, and for a good chunk of last season, he and Chabot were perfect for each other. He was the yin to Chabot's yang.

But Jensen's time in Ottawa has been unravelled by last May's hip resurfacing surgery, and in a contract year, his post-surgery performance didn't leave management with an overwhelming desire to re-sign him. It's quite likely that he'll be allowed to walk into free agency this summer.

Now, with Jordan Spence becoming a full-timer, and Carter Yakemchuk getting close, the blue line scale is more out of balance than ever. 

Sanderson-Zub
Chabot-Spence
Kleven-Yakemchuk/Matinpalo

To varying degrees, each player brings some good things to the table. But the group still clearly needs another shutdown D who, ideally, embraces the physical side of the game even more than Jensen did.

Enter Rasmus Ristolainen. Could he be that missing piece?

TSN insider Darren Dreger reported on his podcast two weeks ago that the Senators and Philadelphia Flyers were engaged in serious trade discussions involving Ristolainen ahead of the March trade deadline.

“I know that Steve Staios was fairly far down the road in negotiations in acquiring Ristolainen at the trade deadline,” Dreger said. “But you know, Philadelphia knew what they had. I don't think they believed or were convinced that they were going to be as good as they were late in the season.

“So that's a pretty clear indication of what Staios and Ottawa were trying to acquire, like a proven defenseman.”

Ristolainen is exactly the kind of big, physical defenseman, willing to play that heavy game that Staios likes, and suddenly, the Senators' D-pairings would start to make a lot more sense.

Sanderson-Ristolainen
Chabot-Zub
Kleven-Spence
Matinpalo

However, while Ristolainen would rebalance things, it's fair to wonder how much tread is left on those tires.

Like Jensen, the defender whose role he would effectively be taking over for, staying healthy is a concern. Once he became a regular in the league, the former first-rounder played seven years of mostly injury-free hockey for the Buffalo Sabres.

However, in the past three seasons in Philly, the 31-year-old has been injury-prone with seasonal totals of 31, 63 and 44 games played. Ristolainen's biggest issue was a pair of triceps tendon ruptures.

The good news is he feels like that's all behind him and looks forward to a full summer ot training.

"Yes, thank God," Ristolainen told the media this week in his year-end availability. "It's the first normal, somewhat normal, off-season in four years, so I'm kind of excited about that, not needing to worry about rehabbing."

Even if he's healthy, he won't come cheap. He's in the final year of his contract at $5.1 million per season, and will soon be looking for more in unrestricted free agency in 2027. 

And of course, the cost to the Senators goes beyond money. There's the little matter of compensation for the Flyers. He played heavy top four minutes this spring in the first playoff experience of his career, so the Flyers will want something meaningful in compensation.

GM Daniel Briere admitted that the "media circus" resulted in a lot of calls about Ristolainen, and while he listened respectfully to everyone, no one offered enough to make it worth his while.

"We weren't looking to dump him," Briere said at his deadline day availability. "Where do you find six-foot-four, physical, top-four right-shot defensemen? There's not a lot. And we saw it on the market. And yes, when that (media reports) came out, I did get a lot of calls. And we took them seriously.

"But at the end of the day, it just did not make sense, value-wise."

And keep in mind that was Briere's take on things on March 6th, when the Flyers were six points and four teams out of the final wild card spot. The GM of a team with that standing couldn't be faulted for thinking that his team isn't close and may need to think about shipping out veterans.

Now, after Ristolainen helped the club go on a furious run to make the playoffs and get to the second round, Briere is probably feeling differently about the player's availability.

That probably won't stop Staios from calling this summer. But with the Flyers now relevant again after missing the playoffs for five years in a row, the price tag probably hasn't come down, and will probably now include a demand for assets that can help the Flyers now.

By Steve Warne
The Hockey News

This article was first published at The Hockey News Ottawa. Check out more great Sens features from The Hockey News at the links below:  

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