Rasmus Ristolainen has revitalized his career with the Philadelphia Flyers, as the Finnish Olympian was able to first rebuild his game under former Flyers assistant coach Brad Shaw. Unfortunately, he’s had a great deal of trouble staying on the ice for extended periods of time.
The injury history
In the last three seasons, Ristolainen has missed 104 games out of a possible 211 thus far. That number will only creep higher as it was announced he will not be joining the team on their upcoming three game road trip. The team has not specified the nature of his latest injury, but Ristolainen had recently returned from a torn triceps suffered last season, and the “upper-body” designation might lead one to believe it could be related.
Injury update: Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen (upper-body injury) is day-to-day and will be unavailable for tonight’s #PHIvsBUF matchup.
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) January 15, 2026
The ruptured tendon in his triceps required surgery in March of 2025, and he had not seen NHL action for nine months. The 2023-24 season was especially irritating for the defenseman, missing the first 20 games before again missing 30 of the final 31 games with lower and upper-body injuries, respectively.
Since being acquired from the Buffalo Sabres in July of 2021, Ristolainen has landed on injured-reserve five times. After missing most of the beginning of this season, his long-awaited return lasted just 13 games. With the condensed schedule due to the upcoming two week Olympic break, it’s fair to wonder if Ristolainen was pushing his body sooner than he was ready for in an effort to play into game shape for team Finland.
Trade talks
General manager Danny Briere had not publicly claimed to be shopping his biggest, physically imposing asset, but when the Flyers started the season well without Ristolainen, he became expendable. Last season, the organization had claimed to be quite bothered by the lack of interest league-wide for their defenseman. It would be difficult to imagine a team giving up any kind of premium asset at this point for a player who plays half the games at this stage in his career.
Briere is going to have to get creative to get any kind of deal done this season. The official NHL trade deadline isn’t until March 6, but with teams reportedly trying to get some of their business done before the Winter Olympics in February, there may not be enough time to get Ristolainen healthy again.
With two years at $5.1 million salary remaining, the contract is more palatable than it was in past seasons. Still, it would take a pretty good piece of business to move on. At just 31 years old, there should be much more hockey left in the tank. It’s just a matter of playing it. The possibility of a buyout could be intriguing if the Flyers are unable to move him this season and need some extra cash to catch a bigger fish this summer.
The on-ice results
In his 13 games this season, Ristolainen had not fared as well as he had in prior years. Per MoneyPuck, his expected goals share was just 45 percent — the lowest mark since his final season in Buffalo. The results followed suit, as the actual share of goals with him on the ice at even strength cratered to a career-worst 30 percent. At such a low number, you don’t need advanced numbers to tell you he was struggling.
Offensively, Ristolainen has added just three assists in his 13 games, although that hasn’t been a big part of his game since running the powerplay with Jack Eichel in Buffalo. For a big success story on one of the biggest reclamation projects in the NHL, the regression has hit hard. The likelihood of the dip in play being injury related is high, but the injuries haven’t relented in nearly a calendar year.
In the meantime, Noah Juulsen and a select number of Lehigh Valley Phantoms could get the vacated ice time while the medical staff works on Ristolainen again.
