Rasmus Ristolainen: What a Difference a Year Makes
My uncle José is a Camden born South Jersey inhabitant. One of the things I always admired about him is his shockingly blunt sense of humor. If someone said, “Hey, such and such wants off the {insert Philly team}!”, his response would’ve been, “I’ll help him pack and drive him to the airport.” I guarantee you, a year ago, he would’ve said the same thing about Flyers defender Rasmus Ristolainen. And you know what, I would’ve been there with him too. And to be honest, so would’ve about 90% of the Flyers Nation.
He arrived in Philly under a cloud. First, the Flyers paid a LOT to get him. Soon after, he signed a five year extension that paid him $5,100,000 a year; the second highest for a defender on the team, only behind Ivan Provorov.
And then there was last season. His two goals in 66 games were the lowest in his career since his rookie year where he scored two in 34 games for Buffalo. His 16 points were the fewest since the four scored in his rookie season. Granted, his -9 was better than the -18 he had in his final season as a Sabre, but was still not worth his salary. It almost seemed as if he got paid and didn’t care.
And with the youth movement that was coming up in Philly, especially on defense, many people thought: did we need to hold on to Risotlainen?
The turning point for Ristolainen was on Nov. 7. On that day, Flyers coach John Tortorella publicly called out Ristolainen for his lack of effort. And at this point, the Flyers season for Risto was just four games old as he began the year on the injured reserve. He was ended up being benched as well.
“He just hasn’t met expectations. He needs to play better. I’m not going to go that much deeper into it, but I don’t think he’s played well enough,” Tortorella said about Ristolainen at the time. “He’s going to get another crack at it. But in everything about his game, I think he needs to be better.”
He was back in against the Blues where he logged 16:16 minutes, had three hits, and three blocks. He was also a +2. Going into that game, he was a -4. He finished the season, overall, a -4. For a team that missed the playoffs and finished in seventh place, that’s not bad.
Ristolainen logged around 19 minutes of ice time. His 24 takeaways were third most on defenders; one less than Tony DeAngelo and 10 less than Provorov. However, he was also third on the team with 43 giveaways. He was third on the team with 142 blocked shots and hits with 162.
Provorov won the team’s Barry Ashbee Award for best defender and Owen Tippett won the Pelle Lindbergh Award for most improved player. You could easily have made a case for Ristolainen for winning one or even both.
He definitely bought into what Tortorella was selling. The way he played showed it. If he can continue this next season, the team will be better for it.
And for that, I want to apologize to Ristolainen for openly rooting for the team to get rid of him.