Flyers Trade Rumors: 8 Teams Listed As Trade Fits For Rasmus Ristolainen

As a big, mobile right-shot defenseman having a solid season, Rasmus Ristolainen has been one of the top names on the rumor mill this year as we chug towards the NHL trade deadline on March 7th. A number of teams have been connected to the Philadelphia Flyers' top-four D-man at various points of the season.

Now, Matt Larkin of Daily Faceoff has aggregated all the rumors and intel, and compiled it all into a list of eight teams who be the best trade fits for Ristolainen, as such (in alphabetical order):

Dallas Stars
Detroit Red Wings
Edmonton Oilers
Florida Panthers
Tampa Bay Lightning
Toronto Maple Leafs
Vancouver Canucks
Winnipeg Jets

That's a huge swath of playoff contenders, all looking for a solid top-four-ish defenseman. Ristolainen, while he isn't throwing his 6'4" frame around as much as in the past, with 77 hits in 47 games (he has five previous seasons around the 200-hit mark), he is still playing a physical game, logging plenty of ice time playing 20:35 a night, and playing more sound defensively, as he has elevated his plus/minus rating to a break-even point for the first time in his career.

The Stars are still looking for a replacement on the right side of their blueline after their deadline acquisition of Chris Tanev last season bolted in the summer to the Leafs. And as for Toronto, despite adding Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, they are still in the market for yet another upgrade for their d-core, and Ristolainen would be right up coach Craig Berube's alley.

The Oilers did add a defenseman this month in free agent John Klingberg, but with his game essentially being all offense, they didn't really address the "defense" part of their season-long need for another top-four defenseman. Ristolainen could fill that role.

The Panthers are down two important d-men from their Stanley Cup roster of last year, having lost Brandon Montour and OEL in the offseason, while the Lightning are thin on depth on the right side.

But seemingly the best fit of all, per Larkin, is the Jets, who could use Ristolainen’s physicality on the back line, and "have a solid collection of prospects and all their upcoming first-round picks and would be better equipped to pursue Ristolainen than most of their competition."

One fly in the ointment in all this, however, was repeated Tuesday morning by Flyers GM Danny Briere, who says he isn't necessarily shopping his big blueliner.

“I’m not shopping him, but I did receive some calls on him.”

- Danny Briere on Rasmus Ristolainen

Flyers’ GM praised Ristolainen’s growth, said big, righty-shot defensemen are difficult to find. And that Ristolainen is not a rental (two more years on deal after this one).
— Jordan Hall (@JHallNBCS) January 21, 2025

Rest assured though, there is always the chance of an offer he can't refuse. Ristolainen's value, with two years still to go on his $5.1M cap hit, will never be higher.