The Philadelphia Flyers are trying a whole lot of things in what has been a wild week in the NHL. While their only two moves so far this offseason has been smartly getting a very capable tandem goaltender in Joseph Woll from the Maple Leafs, and sending Garnet Hathaway home to Florida for a nice little package of draft picks, there is speculation that something much bigger is going to go down in the coming days with the 2026 NHL Draft kicking off Friday night.
Unfortunately, they might have just lost a major trade partner.
There has been ample trade noise surrounding Rasmus Ristolainen in the last few weeks. The 31-year-old defenseman rejuvenated some of his value when he had a very healthy season, played in the Olympics, and then even went on to make his playoff debut and didn’t look absolutely horrible. Going from someone who had major injury concerns last summer and teams not wanting to take the risk, to a large and physical defenseman who could find his place on any team’s blue line in the right role. It’s a great turnaround and it has now warranted the Flyers resuming trade talks.
One team that were consistently rumored to be looking into Ristolainen and ringing up general manager Danny Briere to see if they can find the right price to bring in the hulking rearguard, has been the Ottawa Senators. And we write that in past tense because now the Senators most likely aren’t going to inquire any further and the Flyers lost their chance to make that move.
Senators likely out of the Ristolainen race
According to multiple reports, the Senators are re-signing defenseman Jordan Spence to a four-year, $20-million contract. Spence is a speedy, offensively minded, right-handed blueliner who has good underlying numbers both in his time for the Kings and during his first year in Ottawa. He’s someone who has a lot of fans and while he was in trade rumors this offseason, it certainly seems like the Senators are going to keep him around.
Before they committed to Spence, the series of events to bring in Ristolainen made sense. Ottawa would send the 25-year-old blueliner somewhere for at least a second-round pick, and then they would then feel more comfortable acquiring Ristolainen with one year remaining on his contract for something like the 25th-overall pick this Friday — to meet the Flyers’ demands of a first-round pick for Ristolainen’s services.
Ottawa would get deeper and more physical on a blue line that has offensive creators like Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot on it, and the Flyers would get what they want while clearing room for a possible upgrade on their back end. It’s sort of a win-win scenario for everyone, and it would theoretically not cost the Senators that much to bring Ristolainen in if they got what they wanted for Spence. It might not even be an upgrade for them, but it would be their decision.
Well, all of that is now thrown out the window.
The Senators were the frontrunners to land Ristolainen. We have heard almost every single day something new about how the Flyers and Senators are talking — whether it was for Philadelphia to get one of their centers like Shane Pinto, or for Ristolainen or Owen Tippett to go the other way.
Senators going after Ristolainen now wouldn’t make sense
With the simple re-signing of Spence, it wouldn’t be smart or make any sense or even be conceivable that Ottawa would go out and get Ristolainen now.
Artem Zub was playing top-four minutes on the right side next to Jake Sanderson to finish the season, so that’s one spot taken up. The Senators would not pay Spence the money that he is reported to get for him to be a bottom pair defender, so he will also most likely be in the top four (where he finished last season as well, next to Thomas Chabot). Then add in their young prospect Carter Yakemchuk trying to earn a spot on the roster out of training camp — which, of course, he finished last season on the Senators’ bottom pair — and Ottawa’s blue line really feels already in place and put into stone for next season.
The only other addition the Senators could do is get their own version of Noah Juulsen, to be a benchmark and maybe someone that Yakemchuk will need to prove he’s better than at training camp so that he can rightfully “earn” that full-time roster spot. That’s it. And that’s most likely not going to be Ristolainen at the price that the Flyers want to trade him for.
Are there any other suitors for Ristolainen?
Maybe it has just been so loud about Ristolainen potentially heading to Ottawa, but there have been extremely vague reports of the Flyers garnering interest from the Montreal Canadiens, Buffalo Sabres, Boston Bruins, and Edmonton Oilers.
Even if the Senators are out and if it seemed like the most natural fit given that the Flyers might add something more to Ristolainen to then try and pry Shane Pinto out of Ontario, there are still options.
Maybe Ristolainen gets traded to Edmonton for a very distant first-round pick and the Flyers can say they still got their asking price. Maybe the Canadiens will trade Friday’s 28th overall pick for Ristolainen to add even more beef to that blue line. Maybe the Sabres are interested in a reunion and considering they just moved Bowen Byram and Michael Kesselring, they need defensemen badly — 20th overall might be a little rich but they certainly have some interesting prospects.
Either way, it certainly feels like the Flyers are going to try hard to move Ristolainen this weekend, and if not, this summer. It most likely won’t be to Ottawa, but it can be somewhere else.
