With the gold medal awarded at the 2026 Winter Olympics and the NHL roster freeze lifted as of Sunday at midnight, the transactions are expected to really pick up ahead of the trade deadline just 12 days away. One name that could certainly be moved is Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen and according to recent reports, there are several teams interested in the hulking rearguard.
According to Daily Faceoff’s Anthony Di Marco, the Flyers are receiving trade interest from at least six teams wanting to get their hands on Ristolainen. The two teams who have been specifically mentioned in the report are the Boston Bruins and the Edmonton Oilers, with the others being more speculative and not named as certain destinations.
Rasmus Ristolainen could be on the move before the NHL trade deadline
The fact that Ristolainen is getting this attention makes a whole lot of sense. The 31-year-old defenseman stands at 6-foot-4, shoots right, and just had a very, very good performance for Team Finland at the Olympics. He has shed the worry that he is currently too injured to make a real difference, and in the extremely tight schedule over in Milan, played big minutes while also earning three assists in six games.
While he has managed to play just 19 games for the Flyers this season due to multiple injuries, including one that delayed his season start by over two months, those six games representing his country appears to have done him a world of good to get back to being a potential trade target for teams destined for the playoffs.
Ristolainen can easily be that deadline acquisition that brings a team’s blue line from mediocre, to being able to actually stop and suffocate opposing offense to a strong degree. And it makes perfect sense for the teams that were heavily linked to the player.
For the Oilers, they desperately need some defensive help. With Matias Ekholm starting his potential decline and Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard being Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard, adding someone that actually knows how to defend his own zone and be a physical presence in a productive way, is something they should really target.
As Di Marco notes in the article, though, the Oilers have just over $1 million in projected deadline cap space according to PuckPedia. It would take some heavy bookkeeping to even fit in half of Ristolainen’s $5.1-million AAV (if the Flyers decided to retain). One possible way is taking back winger Andrew Mangiapane but his $3.6-million AAV is through next season and the last thing the Flyers need is another winger to add to the already-existing logjam. But, if it helps the get that first-round pick (and maybe more) from the Oilers, they could swallow it like they did when they needed to take on Ryan Johansen’s contract in the Sean Walker trade to Colorado.
For the Bruins, it’s more of a straightforward situation. They have just over $5 million in projected deadline cap space, so by taking on anyone off of Boston’s roster, they can fit Ristolainen’s entire contract on the books. But outside of the financial fit, it’s a team fit too.
Boston does not want to continue down the path of a teardown rebuild. They have several very good players in important positions, so getting James Hagens at eighth overall appears to be the highest they want to pick from now on. They’re currently holding onto the last Wild Card spot and have a need for a right-handed defenseman in desperate way — they currently have Mason Lohrei on their second pair and Ristolainen is so much better than that option.
While these two teams (and others) make a whole lot of sense, the Flyers are not looking to give the Finnish blueliner away for nothing. So, what are they looking for?
What do the Flyers want in return in Ristolainen trade?
According to Di Marco, the Flyers are looking for a return that resembles the Brandon Carlo trade to Toronto last year, or the Ben Chiarot trade to Florida from a few years ago. Essentially, it’s a first-round pick (with some protection), a mid-level prospect, and another mid-round draft pick.
That can certainly be the goal, but both of those trades are now known as abject disasters for both the Maple Leafs and the Panthers. Toronto acquired Carlo last season for Fraser Minten, who is performing very well with the Bruins, and could be handing Boston a top-10 pick this June. And for Florida, Chiarot was a pure rental, and that first-rounder was then used by the Canadiens to acquire young center Alex Newhook from Colorado.
Do teams really want to give that up again, and for Ristolainen? It might happen, but if the Flyers are aiming for that, maybe we can expect something more like what they got for Walker — a first-round pick attached to a cap dump — for the 31-year-old blueliner. It all depends what the market is and who else is available, right?
As noted by Di Marco, one player that could limit the market for Ristolainen is Mackenzie Weegar. If the Calgary Flames make him available, many more teams could be interested in the objectively better defenseman. Although, Weegar is under contract through the 2030-31 season and is already 32 years old — while he is a very good top-four defenseman, it is a much bigger commitment for that player, and he has a higher cap hit of $6.25 million. Oh, and Weegar also has a full no-trade clause while Ristolainen has zero trade protection.
No matter how it pans out, it’s good to see Ristolainen rejuvenate some of his stock after a very solid performance at the Olympics. If a trade doesn’t get done before the deadline, maybe there’s something to work out in the offseason and that roster spot is still opened heading into training camp for some younger blueliner to take advantage of the opportunity.
Or, we’ll be watching No. 55 in the Orange and Black for a couple more years.