Injury Updates
Flyers’ Rasmus Ristolainen Seen Skating After Season-Ending Injury
After suffering a season-ending triceps injury on Feb. 10 against the Seattle Kraken, it appears veteran Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen is rested, rehabbed, and ready to play for the start of the 2024-25 season.
Ristolainen, 29, underwent surgery to repair a ruptured triceps tendon on April 18, but it is worth noting that the surgery took place two months after the initial injury occurred. Dr. Keith Meister, the head orthopedic surgeon for the Texas Rangers of the MLB, performed the operation, which had a three-month recovery timeline.
A Livebarn video from Sept. 3, originally posted by X user Greg10540718213, shows an eight-second clip of Flyers rookie sensation Matvei Michkov feeding Travis Konecny for a goal at the far post during an informal skate session, and with much of the discussion centered around those two, it appears fans missed Ristolainen skating around with them.
Sam Ersson, Egor Zamula, Erik Johnson, Noah Cates, Bobby Brink, and Sean Couturier were among the players skating with Ristolainen, Michkov, and Konecny in the short video.
Rasmus Ristolainen is alive everybody https://t.co/dLvPXx7WAL pic.twitter.com/4IdWC8wVoh
— Jon Bailey (@ByJonBailey) September 11, 2024
Additionally, based on the Flyers practice jersey reveal on Wednesday, we also know that Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, Cam York, and Tyson Foerster are or have been in town skating with each other and getting some light practices in before training camp.
Before he went down with his injury, the Flyers were an impressive 17-9-5 with Ristolainen in the lineup. Without Ristolainen, the Flyers were a paltry 21-24-6 – far below .500.
For more context, the Flyers allowed 3.33 goals per game in the 51 games without Ristolainen last season. With the hulking Finn in the lineup, that figure drops 0.5 goals per game all the way down to 2.83.
This number is important for the Flyers and Ristolainen; 2.83 goals against per game would have ranked T-8th in the NHL last season, equal with the Dallas Stars and Seattle Kraken. The Kraken were the only team in the top 10 of goals against per game to not qualify for the playoffs.
The Flyers suffered a great loss on defense when Ristolainen was put on the shelf, but now that he appears to be healthy, he and the team can start the 2024-25 season off on the right foot.
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Do you think missing Carter Hart may have played into those numbers as well?
More than likely, yes, since Petersen and Sandstrom weren’t close to giving the team NHL-caliber goaltending, but I do think Ristolainen played a big part in suppressing scoring chances against
Risto ended up being the whipping boy for many fans just because of the overly inflated contract he got from Fletcher. He’s an expensive third pairing DMan but if the winning percentage with Risto in the lineup are the same this year and the team remains relatively healthy they have an outside chance at the playoffs. But as usual it’ll come down to goaltending and power play efficiency.
I agree. Risto has been excellent since Torts became the head coach two years ago, and Risto himself credits Torts for his drastic improvement. The power play has to improve dramatically, though; no questions about it.
Come big boy . Your time has arrived . After rotting away in Buffalo with eichel and Reinhardt you were saved only by Owen power falling in buffalos lap with #1 pick and they ended up with two of same player. Or u would be still there rotting still.
this is your chance . What u worked for your entire career for is next 4 years on a contender starting next year .
i want to see that attitude when you were a young gun on buffalo. That edge you played with .
prove to everyone like nick castellanos has done with Phillies amongst the critics. I know you can be the main backstop on a cup team defensively . I maybe missing something from my tv view but you can do this . We need leadership from you too.
it’s time to get going . There’s not too many people around league that I see can fill this position with your toolset .
don’t make me look like an idiot thru all the naysayers last few years when we were organizing . I want some version of pronger 2.0 without hurting a bunch of people until geaux time .
love the Twitter feed , “rasmus Ristolainen is alive “ . Too funny . I was looking for him at citizens bank today , a lot of the Phillies were down there hitting . I want leadership in his role too. It doesn’t have to be Scott stevens or chara leadership but it needs to be Eric Johnson leadership
risto and Seeler gotta be hitting come February and clearing that back end out
***flyers player hitting baseballs at citizens bank today (not Phillies)
“Flyers were an impressive 17-9-5 with Ristolainen in the lineup. Without Ristolainen, the Flyers were a paltry 21-24-6 – far below .500.”……..all the while he had this in those 31 games he played with a +/- rating of minus 6. Sanheim (-20) and York (-13) of course playing the most of all their d-men on the first pairing, had unflattering ratings as well…over the entire season.