On Wednesday, we posted a breakdown of defensemen the Bruins could and should target ahead of the March 21 trade deadline. The nature of the days leading up to any trade deadline is that things can change quickly.
That’s what happened on Thursday, when the Philadelphia Flyers announced that they have signed Rasmus Ristolainen to a five-year, $25.5 million extension. Had they not done that, they likely would have been trading Ristolainen before he hit free agency this summer.
This is actually good news for fans of any playoff team that’s in the market for defense, because now you don’t have to worry about your general manager trading a first-round pick for Ristolainen, which is what the Flyers were reportedly looking for.
Ristolainen made our list of players to avoid because, quite frankly, he just isn’t very good. He’s big, he’s physical, and he shoots the puck a lot, but his defensive play and decision-making leave a lot to be desired. In both Buffalo and Philly, he has struggled mightily when tasked with playing high in the lineup and facing opponents’ top lines.
The Flyers gave up too much to get Ristolainen last summer, and they’ve now compounded the problem by locking him up long-term. They could compound it even further if the next shoe to drop is that they trade away a much better defenseman.
TSN’s Darren Dreger followed up the news of Ristolainen’s extension by tweeting that there has been speculation about whether the move opens the door for the Flyers to possibly trade Travis Sanheim.
If Sanheim is available, he should immediately be added to the list of worthy top-four targets for the Bruins and any other team looking for D help. Sanheim is a 25-year-old, 6-foot-3 left shot who is signed through next season with a $4.675 million cap hit.
He’s not as physical as Ristolainen, but he’s a much better all-around player. Those two have played as a pair for most of this season, and there is an overwhelming amount of evidence that whatever success they’ve had has been because of Sanheim, not Ristolainen.
If the Flyers wanted a first-round pick for Ristolainen, it would stand to reason that they’d want more than that for Sanheim given that he’s better and signed through next season. On the other hand, the Flyers haven’t exactly been known for being reasonable in recent years.
Of course, speculation doesn’t mean Sanheim is actually available or is going to be traded. But if you’re Don Sweeney or any other general manager looking for a defenseman, you might as well be making a call and seeing where things go. Sanheim would upgrade the Bruins’ defense at least for this season and next, and possibly for many years beyond that if they were to sign him to an extension.
Related
