The Philadelphia Flyers are getting very involved in trade talks before the March 7 deadline, but according to one report, teams are not offering enough for one of their biggest available assets.
Rasmus Ristolainen’s name has been on countless trade boards and he could certainly be moved to a new team before the trade deadline, but the Flyers seem completely fine to hold on to the defenseman if their asking price is not met and according to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, that hasn’t happened yet.
But the Flyers, being where they are, have to listen, and they indeed are.
Having said that, as of Thursday, my understanding is that the Flyers hadn’t received anything that came even close to getting their attention. I believe the price tag to be a first-round pick plus another asset to get the Flyers into a serious discussion.
Of course, if the Flyers got offered what they wanted, Ristolainen would already be wearing different colors. But thanks to LeBrun’s Friday report, just a week before the deadline date, other teams are not quite hitting the Flyers’ ask of a first-round pick and another asset.
Now, what could that other asset be? Does it mean another draft pick? Or, could it be a prospect? Maybe a roster player to potentially fill the hole Ristolainen leaves on this roster but just isn’t as good as the Finnish blueliner? We could only do some guesswork here, but it most likely would be some mid-level prospect who could turn into something but has some runway ahead of him.
Ristolainen has two more seasons under contract at a $5.1-million AAV cap hit. That is not insignificant and whatever team really wants to acquire him, certainly would hypothetically think high enough of the defenseman that he would stick around for those seasons and wouldn’t just appear for a few months and a playoff run like some sort of rental.
Now, these talks could certainly pick up in the next seven days, but the Flyers are certainly in no rush to make a move. Unlike the Sean Walker situation last year, Ristolainen is not a pending unrestricted free agent and it’s either get something for him — and hold steady to your asking price — or he just walks away for nothing. Philadelphia could certainly keep the big, right-handed defenseman through the rest of the season and revisit trade discussions in the summer. And the summer is where more teams have the financial wiggle room — especially with the sizeable cap ceiling increase — and maybe some non-playoff teams want to make that jump into contention and trading for Ristolainen is what they think would do it for them.
All hypothetical, but it is not the end of the world if the 30-year-old Finn remains a Philadelphia Flyer on March 8. For now, at least, that situation is looking more and more likely every day.