Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen ‘week-to-week’ with upper-body injury
Ristolainen, who has been one of the team's most consistent defensemen this season, has not played since March 11.
Rasmus Ristolainen will be out for a while.
On Thursday, the Flyers announced that the defenseman has been downgraded from day-to-day to week-to-week with an upper-body injury.
Ristolainen has not played since March 11, when he skated 18 minutes, 2 seconds against the Ottawa Senators. It is his second stint on the shelf this season. He missed three games for the Flyers and the 4 Nations Face-Off for Finland in February after suffering an upper-body injury against the Colorado Avalanche on Feb. 2.
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The loss of Ristolainen has allowed Emil Andrae to become a mainstay in the lineup, but they play a very different game.
The Flyers miss the 6-foot-4 Ristolainen’s size on the blue line and his work with partner Egor Zamula. According to Natural Stat Trick, among the three stable pairings — Cam York-Travis Sanheim, and Jamie Drysdale-Nick Seeler being the other two — Zamula and Ristolainen have the highest Corsi for percentage (51.55%), expected goals for percentage (56.86%) and high-danger chances for percentage (55.88%).
Coach John Tortorella said the Finn is the “most improved player since I started here” before the trade deadline when rumors were swirling that Ristolainen could be on the move.
“If you trade him Friday, then on Saturday, you say, [expletive], I need a big, right-handed defenseman,” Tortorella noted. “You’re always looking for that big, right-handed defenseman.”
This season, Ristolainen has 19 points (four goals, 15 assists) in 63 games. He missed most of last season with injuries, playing in only 31 games due a variety of ailments.