The Philadelphia Flyers have announced several moves, including one that you don’t see very often. Carter Hart will be out for this afternoon’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes with an eye infection. His status is unclear moving forward, though there is hope that it doesn’t keep him out long. To fill the spot, Kirill Ustimenko has been recalled under emergency conditions. Meanwhile, Rasmus Ristolainen and Patrick Brown have both been activated from injured reserve, while Wade Allison has moved to IR to make room.
Among those moves, Ristolainen’s return may be the biggest. The veteran defenseman is a pending unrestricted free agent and could potentially be a prime target at the trade deadline. His health will likely determine how many teams are interested though, so getting him back into the lineup can only help the Flyers. Ristolainen hasn’t played since February 9 against the Detroit Red Wings where he logged nearly 24 minutes of ice time.
Overall, he’s averaging more than 21 minutes this season, his first in Philadelphia. The Flyers suggested earlier this season that they hoped to sign Ristolainen to an extension, though with the way the year has gone so far it’s hard to argue that a trade wouldn’t be more productive. Notorious for his poor plus-minus record, despite that statistic not inspiring much faith, Ristolainen is once again in the negative at -12 on the year. He’s been on the ice for 46 goals against at even strength, worse than all but 28 other defensemen in the league.
Still, the mix of size, skating ability, and offensive upside that the 27-year-old brings (along with the fact that he’s right-handed) will make him an interesting player to watch as the deadline approaches.
Dear Rasmus, do not let the door hit you in the a$$ on the way out.
@Pax vobiscum – I wonder which GM thought that Ristolainen was going to be the be-all-end-all on that blueline. Some of them think that just getting out of Buffalo is its own magic potion. Risto has to be the one to prove otherwise, though.
Let the door hit Fletcher on the way out, it’s his fault Rasmus is here and the over payment Fletcher made for him.
Any chance Ellis or Hayes actually come back this year?
LOL No! What would it matter?
eugh, Risto’s been fine this season. the points aren’t there, but that’s about the same with everyone on the blueline this year. i think he’s been much better than the points total shows.
Risto is the only defenseman that hits and moves opposing players from the front of the net, which has been a problem for years. We need to stop only signing puck moving defensemen like Yandle, who is a -29 and worst on the team. JVR is a -23, worst forward for +/-. After that it drops down to Hayes and Risto at -12 which is about average for this whole team. Yandle is the one that has to go, and bring in a physical stay-at-home defenseman. Stop getting defensemen that can’t play defense. Ghost, Gus, and Yandle were all liabilities. They give up more defensively than they provide offensively. So many goals this year were directly attributed to a mistake that Yandle made.
Ghost was far from the liability that he was made out to be. he was just a convenient scapegoat.
Scapegoat? Ghost WAS a liability. He couldn’t move players from the front of the net, he got pushed off the puck, he got caught pinching so many times. He was horrible defensively. The 1 year his offensive numbers kind of made up for all mistakes he made defensively, but he would never stay back. Every time he rushed the puck, a forward would have to drop back. It hurt the team. He should have just moved to forward, but the reason he doesn’t, is because he would get pushed around as a forward.
Hagg hit, but giving Hagg, a 1st & 2nd round draft picks for a 1 year rental… LMAO!
He’s the top or 2nd best player on a lousy Coyotes team and Fletcher gave drafts picks up to get rid of him. LOL