The Philadelphia Flyers are approaching this trade deadline from a unique angle. While most other teams who are several points out of a playoff spot, are gearing up to sell off their pending free agents or possibly move on from some core pieces, the Flyers don’t really have much of that. No bounty of veterans who they can get a heaping pile of draft picks for to help their rebuild, it’s just going to largely be status quo.
That is except one specific player.
Rasmus Ristolainen is the one player that the Flyers have who they can sell off for a difference-making level of value — that is at least what we hope. The 31-year-old defenseman has been named on countless trade boards, is heavily involved in the rumor mill, and is generally just a player that makes total sense to move on from for a rebuilding team. Despite him being under contract for one more season, it certainly feels more likely than not that the Flyers will be trading Ristolainen before the deadline next Friday.
Well, that is unless they hit a major challenge in being able to actually move the player.
Why the Flyers could face challenge trading Rasmus Ristolainen at deadline
On Friday morning’s episode of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman narrowed in on the situation in Philadelphia. While there has been major speculation on what the Flyers are looking for in return for Ristolainen and what teams could be interested, Friedman mentioned something that no one has really brought up: The Flyers could struggle to find the right fit because there are just so many defensemen available.
“Philly, they’re a seller. Ristolainen, another guy who, like Trocheck, did nothing at the Olympics to hurt his stature. Played very well — hit McDavid a couple of times. The thing that someone said to me though is, there’s a lot of [defensemen] out there, a lot. And it’s not that people don’t like this player, who’s also got a reputation as an excellent teammate, by the way. It’s just that the challenge for the Flyers will be is, there’s a lot of [defensemen] out there,” Friedman said.
“So, if you don’t like the price on him, unless you’ve really got your heart set on him, there’s other players you can move to. That’s the challenge for Philly.”
That’s not great!
It’s true that Ristolainen’s stock has not been higher in a very long time. His performance for Finland at the Olympics showed that he can bring it when the game is the toughest (and stay healthy while doing it). And while we were dreaming of maybe a team actually coughing up a first-round pick to acquire him, the reality that there are just a boatload of similar players on the market, might prevent that from happening.
Whether it’s Tyler Myers, Justin Faulk, Dougie Hamilton, Logan Stanley, Luke Schenn, Brandon Carlo, Connor Murphy, Mackenzie Weegar, Mario Ferraro, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Zach Whitecloud, or [takes deep breath] John Klingberg — there is just a lot of experienced blueliners that could be moved in the next week. A playoff team who wants to find some help on their back end can just go window shopping, strolling down the boulevard as the rugged defensemen plead to get out from their loser teams and experience some meaningful hockey.
The one advantage that the Flyers do actually have over the other teams moving players like this, is that Ristolainen does not have any trade protection whatsoever. Outside of Schenn, Stanley, Whitecloud, and Ferraro, all the other blueliners named above have some level of no-trade clause and could prevent their team from moving them to certain destinations. Now, we don’t doubt that it would be hard to convince the likes of Dougie Hamilton to leave the Devils and go to a more favorable destination, but it can still be a hurdle the teams have to leap over.
But, it’s just so much and there aren’t that many spots available.
That’s why it’s not difficult to imagine the Flyers are going to have problems before the trade deadline. We know that they hold onto their own valuations for their players extremely tight — they weren’t going to trade Scott Laughton until they got that first-round pick; they weren’t going to move pending free agent Sean Walker unless they got that first-round pick (which they had to take on Ryan Johansen for). It’s a stubbornness that has worked out for them very well.
But, with so many similar players available, a team can just go ahead and pay the second-round pick for Whitecloud instead. Or, go get the younger Mario Ferraro and re-sign him to a cheaper deal, while also possibly paying less than a first-rounder for him.
For right now, it seems like the Flyers either need to be more flexible with what they want in return for their player, or pray that a playoff team really narrows in on Ristolainen and thinks he’s so much better than the other available defensemen.
We’ll see how it all plays out in the next seven days.