Flyers Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down: Rasmus Ristolainen improves after horrific start

Following a horrible first half of the season, Rasmus Ristolainen managed to rebound and end the campaign on somewhat of a high note.

Following a disappointing 2020-21 season, the Flyers were desperate to bounce right back to contention and avoid missing the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the early '90s. In an effort to shore up their back end, the Flyers made a pair of bold trades with hopes that their new pair of defensemen would be enough to help guide them back to the postseason.

First, the Flyers acquired Ryan Ellis from the Nashville Predators in exchange for Nolan Patrick and Phil Myers. And one week later, they traded a first-round pick, a second-round pick, and Robert Hagg to the Buffalo Sabres for Rasmus Ristolainen — a hefty price for a player with well-documented defensive struggles.

Those struggles didn't disappear once Ristolainen joined the Flyers. But, inexplicably, he was given a five-year, $25.5 million contract extension after his first, unimpressive season in Philadelphia. Now, he's likely to be a regular in the team's lineup until his contract expires in 2027.

Ristolainen has captured the hearts of old school hockey fans since his first campaign as an NHLer during the 2013-14 season. He's an enormous, rangy defenseman who dishes out a ton of hits and has even demonstrated the ability to produce on the power play. Between 2015 and 2019, he averaged 21 power-play points per year on some very poor Sabres teams.

Unfortunately, that power-play promise has quickly vanished. Since joining the Flyers, Ristolainen has become a black hole for offense, and his ineptitude away from the puck has made him nothing short of a colossal liability on the blue line.

So far, in 140 games with the Flyers, Ristolainen has logged just five goals and 36 total points, and his advanced statistics haven't been pretty either.

But, to his credit, Ristolainen has improved significantly after a horrendous start to the 2022-23 season.

Ristolainen was held without a point in each of his first 27 games of the season, and he didn't score a goal until his 38th game of the campaign. He was even benched in the Flyers' November 5 game against the Ottawa Senators. But as the season progressed, the offensive production began to show. In fact, from December 23 to the season finale, Ristolainen ranked second of all Flyers defensemen with 20 points — ahead of Cam York, Ivan Provorov, and Travis Sanheim.

"It's kind of almost like two seasons in one. First half was pretty bad, and probably after the Christmas break I started to get going. The second half was a lot better and I played some good hockey," Ristolainen told the media during his exit interview.

"I don't think I did a single thing right pretty much in the first part."

And that's not an understatement. His first half of the season was disastrous.

From the season opener to December 31, Ristolainen's play-driving numbers were nothing short of atrocious. Out of all Flyers defensemen, he ranked dead last in Corsi For percentage (43.53) and Goals For percentage (39.47). But once the new year began, Ristolainen's numbers improved dramatically. From January 1 to the season finale, his 5-on-5 Corsi For percentage jumped to 47.10 while his Goals For percentage rose to 50.91.

Not exactly mind-blowing numbers, but any improvement from Ristolainen is a welcome one.

It took Ristolainen three months to score his first goal of the season, but when he finally did, it came at a pretty nice time.

Against the Anaheim Ducks on January 17, Ristolainen ended his 37-game goalless drought to give the Flyers a 2-1 lead.

The best part? He did it shorthanded.

Simply amazing.

By all means, Ristolainen has a terrific attitude toward improving his game and seems to have a positive relationship with Tortorella. But he also has not proved worthy of his $5.1 million annual cap hit, and he has a long way to go before becoming a trustworthy presence on a contending hockey team. Given his commitment to improving, it's possible he'll take another step in the right direction in another campaign under Tortorella. But for now, there's still much to be desired from the Flyers' big defender.

Verdict: 

Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and NHL.com.