Rasmus Ristolainen has been somewhat of a lightning rod for criticism of the Flyers’ front office– an easy target given his struggles to stay on the ice. This year proved difficult again for the fifth-year Flyer defenseman, as he managed just 44 games after missing the team’s first 31 of the season due to his ruptured triceps tendon. Credit to Ristolainen, though, as he would play almost the entire rest of the season, logging pretty big minute totals through two playoff rounds in his first trip to the postseason.
After very nearly being traded— reportedly, the Detroit Red Wings had their choice of Ristolainen or Justin Faulk for a similar package, choosing the latter and consequently ending their season– Ristolainen was a pretty big part of the push to the playoffs and beyond. Detroit would have been lucky to have him, as it turns out, and they’ll be kicking themselves.
| Games played | Goals | Assists | Points | PIM | Shots on Goal | Shooting % | Average TOI |
| 44 | 1 | 13 | 14 | 16 | 58 | 1.72% | 21:23 |
The scoring numbers are whatever, as the team isn’t paying him to score anyway, but it’s not a bad pace. Ristolainen did get plenty of power play time, and he’s part of the reason it’s ineffective, but it’s not really his fault that the team has nobody else who can replace him. He was the team’s leading scorer in a six game playoff series that they won, funnily enough, but with the power play in the state that it is, he’ll never put up numbers like his Buffalo days again.
THE FLYERS HAVE THEIR FIRST LEAD OF THE NIGHT AND RASMUS RISTOLAINEN HAS HIS FIRST CAREER PLAYOFF GOAL ‼️ pic.twitter.com/Rm0QNrbFVF
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 23, 2026
| (5v5) Goals For % | Expected Goals For % | Corsi For % | High-Danger Attempts For % | PDO |
| 52.54% | 54.74% | 47.48% | 55.17% | 101.3 |
These are pretty successful numbers given that Ristolainen essentially only played the second half of the season. Teams tend to play a little harder in March than in October, but Ristolainen grades out quite well. He had ups and downs, as does everyone, but it’s hard to say he was an abject failure or anything. Despite uncertainty around his status early on, he was a solid contributor to the first Philadelphia playoff team in several years, and they don’t get there without him.
| (5v5) Points per 60 | Primary points per 60 | Shots on goal per 60 | Shot attempts per 60 | Expected goals per 60 |
| 0.7 | 0.32 | 3.7 | 9.05 | 0.34 |
Ristolainen’s most common defensive partner this season was Travis Sanheim by about a 300 minute margin over his next common partner, Nick Seeler. These are regular season marks, but he was certainly Sanheim’s most effective and near exclusive playoff partner for those ten games as well, with the highest playoff Expected Goals For Percentage of the Flyer defense pairings with at least 20 minutes together at 55.2% despite taking the lion’s share of the defensive zone draws.
Did Ristolainen live up to expectations?
Coming in to the season, it wasn’t clear when exactly Ristolainen would be playing again, if he would be able to be a regular contributor, or if he’d even be effective after a surgery and such a long layoff. He had essentially no off-season to train, no training camp to get up to speed, and no rehab assignment in the minor leagues.
Naturally, he played over 19 minutes in his first game back– a 4-1 victory in Montreal– and stabilized a defense corps that was relying on unproven players such as Ty Murchison for 15 minutes a night at the time. That’s no shot against Murchison, but Ristolainen is a proven NHL top-four defenseman, and the team missed him. He wasn’t just out there doing cardio either; Ristolainen played to a near 55 percent Expected Goals For percentage on the top defensive pair with Travis Sanheim. He isn’t yet one of those guys where any contribution at all is gravy, but for Ristolainen, it’s fair to say he exceeded any realistic expectation of what he would bring to the table this season.
What can we expect from Ristolainen next season?
Above all else for Ristolainen, he made it through relatively unscathed. For an oft-injured defenseman on the wrong side of 30, it’s pretty remarkable that he played as many minutes as he did and wasn’t one of the names on the long list of injuries released after Carolina’s sweep. It’s his “first somewhat normal offseason in four years”, and that could actually mean his time as a Flyer is coming to an end.
Ristolainen is entering the final year of the five year extension given to him by the retooler-in-chief, Chuck Fletcher. Seeing just how close a trade was to being completed in March, it shouldn’t surprise anyone if he was still available over the summer and beyond. It’s almost as if the expectation for Ristolainen’s 2026-27 season should be “playing somewhere else”, but if he does remain a Flyer for a sixth season, the club will welcome his 19 to 22 solid minutes in 55 to 60 games with a couple of wrap-around attempts for good measure. With the rest of the league having proof-of-life with a good playoff run, Ristolainen should provide good value wherever he may end up– doubly so with the Flyers now able to retain on his palatable deal.
How do we grade Ristolainen’s 2025-26 season?
It was pleasantly surprising. We’ve come a long way from his arrival in Philadelphia, and he’s rebuilt himself into a nice player over the years. He did only play roughly half the season, but he finished strong on the whole, and every player who plays as much as Ristolainen does (when healthy) is going to have their moments both ways. He didn’t blow the doors off, but he was solid, and that’s about all you can ask for from a middle-of-the-lineup defenseman who was probably playing above his ideal role on a playoff team.
