The Rasmus Ristolainen Contract is a Mistake for Philadelphia

Ristolainen Clears The Crease: One of the biggest arguments in favor of Rasmus is his ability to clear the crease in front of the goalie. People that fight on this hill argue that the Flyers have a soft net-front presence until Ristolainen joined the team. I think it is important to add that not only is this untrue, but the Flyers’ net-front presence has actually weakened.

For instance, take a look at the following heatmap of shots on Flyers’ goaltenders when Ristolainen was on the ice:

The bottom two of these heat maps are designed to show where most of the opposing team shot the puck on net from. As is visible on these charts, the highest concentration of shots when Ristolainen is iced come immediately in front of the net, both on the penalty kill and even strength. The only area that can even hold a candle to the same volume of action is just behind the dot on the right side. This is especially concerning as Ristolainen is a right-handed defenseman, and should thus be shutting down the right side, rather than leaving both it, and the crease wide open.

Ristolainen Is Hard to Play Against: The argument that other players consider Ristolainen “hard to play against” is an interesting one. Interesting because it is true, many different polls both among the general players, and those asked about the Flyers specifically say so. To many, this would be a massive weight in favor of Ristolainen’s style of game, since even star players in the league have deemed him a difficult opponent.

However, this argument isn’t necessarily made as a statement of Ristolainen’s play. Of course, Ristolainen is “difficult to play against.” He physically injures his opponents. Ristolainen makes hits. Hard hits. That much has never been in question. However, the circumstances in which he makes these hits are far from equal.

There are an incredible number of times that can be pointed to, argued both in and against Ristolainen, where the defenseman lays the body down for a big hit. The issue is more often than not, Ristolainen is taking himself out of position to make these hits, leaving other players to make up for the missing defenseman, often resulting in either a goal or a quality scoring opportunity.

The Travis Sanheim Defense: It would be unfair to discuss Rasmus Ristolainen’s play without at any point touching on his defensive partner in Philadelphia: Travis Sanheim. In their time together, both Sanheim and Ristolainen have seen a much greater amount of praise than either was used to.

Ristolainen was suddenly given credit for every quality play Sanheim made, and conversely, Sanheim gained a ton of credit for covering up Ristolainen’s mistakes. From an objective and analytical standpoint, the truth is clear, but the eye-test crowd finds themselves unconvinced.

By every potential analytic, Travis Sanheim is the best defenseman on the Flyers by a comfortable margin. Offensively keen, and defensively good, Sanheim has emerged in the 21-22 season as a defenseman that the Flyers should build around more than any other, especially considering his contract and age.

I don’t attempt to claim Sanheim is a flawless player, he isn’t, but his play has indicated, both by the eye-test and advanced analytics, that he is the best defenseman on this team, and that trading him would be a mistake. Despite this, people still argue in favor of Ristolainen as a better player than Sanheim, and those people are analytically wrong in every potential metric.

If the Flyers were to trade Sanheim in favor of keeping Risto? Sanheim is earmarked as the most recent Flyer to suddenly become elite after leaving Philadelphia.

Rasmus Ristolainen is a plug, I know that may seem aggressive now, but the 27-year-old defenseman has only deteriorated defensively since joining the league, and has not once shown signs of improvement.

Offensively, of course, Ristolainen has more value. He is certainly no stranger to the odd highlight-reel play. But when the entire season is viewed as a whole, those highlight plays truly are few and far between, and are only exacerbated by a social media presence determined to see him succeed.

If you ask me, when every other fanbase laughs at you for acquiring a player, laughs at you for keeping the player, and clowns you for extending that player, everyone else isn’t wrong. You are trying to cope with yet another bad decision by the Flyers front office. Ristolainen would have been better off traded for a bag of pucks at the deadline, now he’s the Flyers’ #3 for the next five years.