The Philadelphia Flyers were very active around last season’s trade deadline. They traded long-time veteran Scott Laughton, parted ways with Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost months before the deadline, flipped Andrei Kuzmenko to get maximum value, and then did Erik Johnson a favor and sent him back home to Colorado.
According to one recent report, though, they could have done even more and traded defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen to the Maple Leafs for what seems like a haul.
In a recent article from the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch, he mentions somewhat passively that, according to a league source, the Leafs were in hot pursuit of the 30-year-old blueliner and offered a sizeable amount of assets in a trade for his services.
League executives also suggested the Senators could try to see if they can find a fit with the Philadelphia Flyers for right-shot blueliner Rasmus Ristolainen, who has two years left at $5.1 million per season.
But it should be noted that the Toronto Maple Leafs tried desperately to get Ristolainen at the trade deadline in March, and were rebuffed.
“The Leafs offered the moon and couldn’t get him out of there,” a league source said.
Of course, we have no idea what that trade could have looked like. What exactly is “the moon” when it comes to a trade with Toronto, anyways? But, considering that they did end up giving up a first-round pick and center prospect Fraser Minten for someone similar to Ristolainen in Brandon Carlo from the Boston Bruins, could we have possibly seen the same thing go down?
Let’s continue to pull on this thread. The Leafs needed the Bruins to retain salary on Carlo to make it work, turning his $4.1-million AAV cap hit into $3.485 million to squeeze their dollars right under the ceiling. For the Leafs to make Ristolainen work, if it was on deadline day, the Flyers would have had to theoretically retained a whopping $1.615 million on Ristolainen’s contract. It’s not the largest number, but it’s not insignificant.
Considering that Ristolainen’s contract is through the 2026-27 season, that is a long time to have that amount of money on the books. And if it was for a center prospect who might top out as a middle-six guy but is more likely to be a bottom-six penalty-killing center, and a pick that is probably going to be in the high-20s? Is it worth it? When we also take into consideration how the Flyers value cap flexibility above a whole lot — they traded Joel Farabee for almost nothing to get some — and that they have repeated ad nauseum that they want to be big players in the 2026 free agent class, that $1.615 million could be a sore spot and could be a barrier to acquiring a player that would make this Flyers team a perennial contender, hypothetically.
Again, no one knows what this offer was but we can at least make educated guesses. Everyone’s opinion of what a massive trade package is for Ristolainen can vary from just one single first-round pick, to a whole heaping pile of prospects and picks.
We do know that the Flyers were reportedly asking for at least a first-round pick for Ristolainen at this past trade deadline, but that did not include the need to retain any salary and that of course complicates things.
Garrioch also touches on the Ottawa Senators possibly being a fit for Ristolainen as early as this calendar year. The large Finnish blueliner is dealing with an injury that is keeping him out of action for all of training camp this fall and possibly affecting the start to his regular season. So, this theoretical trade to Ottawa for Ristolainen would not be able to come to fruition closer to the end of 2025 — considering that he would need to show that he is capable of playing hockey again after he recovers from his injury.
Towards the end of May is not typically when we hear that the trade market is ramping up, but it is interesting to reflect on something that could have possibly happened. Again, just one single source talking to a reporter based in Ottawa about the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Philadelphia Flyers, but it would be certainly interesting.
There could be interest in Ristolainen and the market for him most likely will heat up once again closer to the 2026 trade deadline (we hope).