The Philadelphia Flyers have signed defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen to a five-year contract extension with an AAV of $5.1 million.
Cap Friendly: Salary breakdown.
2022-23: $4 million
2023-24: $5.5 million
2024-25: $6.5 million
2025-26: $5.5 million
2026-27: $4 million
Charlie O’Connor: “The key people in the front office obviously liked Ristolainen from the start. But my understanding of part of why they wanted to re-sign him so badly is because they felt like his physical style was needed for the Flyers. That whole “Flyers should be hard to play against” thing.”
- Charlie O’Connor: “To be clear, I disagree with this way of trying to be hard to play against — I’d rather just have the puck a lot. But the whole traditional Flyers culture element is a big reason why they liked Ristolainen enough to give him this contract.”
Charlie O’Connor: “The numbers being reported regarding Ristolainen are about what I figured it would cost to to re-sign him, a bit over the low $4 mil range the Flyers ideally would have wanted. But it was obvious over the past week that they were prioritizing bringing him back if possible.”
David Pagnotta: “After the price Philly paid for Ristolainen via trade, losing him as a UFA or moving him at deadline for much less wasn’t appealing. Locking him into a 5-year extension in/around $5M AAV was the objective.”
Viz on Ristolainen
With a gap between underlying numbers and reputation/market value like Ristolainen has, you typically expect to see some “stuff” in the microstats that he does on the ice.
Not so much the case here. He’s big and shoots the puck. pic.twitter.com/41VRHTyZo9
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) March 10, 2022
is this good? pic.twitter.com/nYtvNMpAei
— dom at the athletic (@domluszczyszyn) March 10, 2022
That’s $5 million PER year pic.twitter.com/3NP1A7XWS0
— Evolving-Hockey (@EvolvingHockey) March 10, 2022
Rasmus Ristolainen (5×5.1m extension with Philadelphia) is a grievous harm to his team in virtually every facet of the game. This deal covers his age 28 through age 32 seasons. May God have mercy on all our souls, especially those of the players who deserve his minutes. pic.twitter.com/HVqxJtgl2v
— Micah Blake McCurdy (@IneffectiveMath) March 10, 2022
Bravo! Philadelphia has the worst management, staff, owner in the NHL. Confirmed. Brutal. Dave Scott, Bobby Clarke, Paul Holmgren, Chuck Fletcher. They quickly and overwhelmingly made the Flyers one of the worst organizations in the NHL. https://t.co/XM09BI0bve pic.twitter.com/AK0nZ1J8Vg
— Andy & Rono 📊 (@HockeyStatsCZ) March 10, 2022