VOORHEES, N.J. — In his press conference Tuesday, Danny Briere extolled Rasmus Ristolainen when the Flyers' general manager was asked about the defenseman's status a month and a half out from the trade deadline.
Briere highlighted the value of Ristolainen's role and went as far as to say he wasn't shopping the 30-year-old blueliner.
In other words: Pay up, contenders.
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It sure doesn't sound like the Flyers are going to sell Ristolainen short, especially with him playing some of the best hockey of his career on a deal with team control. After this season, Ristolainen has two more years left on his five-year contract, which has a $5.1 million annual cap hit. The Flyers are not in win-now mode and playoff clubs covet defensemen of Ristolainen's ilk, which could give Briere his biggest decision before the March 7 trade deadline.
"There are teams that have called to inquire, but Risto has been so good, too, for us," Briere said. "He's not a rental. For us, there's no rush to trade him. We finally have him healthy, we finally have him playing extremely well. To find a right-shot D like that, to play in your top four, to play as physical as he does, they're tough to find. We have him here for us, too."
Ristolainen is one of two defensemen to have appeared in all 47 games for the Flyers. He played in his first regular-season opener with the team after missing the previous three because of injuries. Ristolainen came into Tuesday with a goal, 11 assists and only six penalty minutes while playing 20:35 minutes per game. Over the last 30 games, he has recorded nine points (all assists) and a plus-7 rating.
"We get excited about trading him and thinking about the kind of return we can get, but I'm not shopping him, I'm not trying to get rid of him," Briere said. "He's a big asset for us and it would be a big hole if we ever have to lose him. I really don't know where it's going, but I can tell you, I'm not shopping him. I did receive some calls on him."
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The imposing, 6-foot-4 Ristolainen has shown noticeable improvement in three years under head coach John Tortorella and assistant coach Brad Shaw. He doesn't just hunt for big hits. He has been effective in ending plays with his physicality and moving the puck with his legs.
"The thing I like about Risto is there's a little bit of stubbornness to him, but I also think he cares," Tortorella said over a week ago. "I think he has taken some of the coaching and tried to get better. Where sometimes when you have a veteran guy and some new things are brought in or maybe you're pushed along the way, the stubbornness takes over and you don't want to listen to it.
"He's a good player, he's a really good player. All the things I've read are, 'His contract's an albatross.' I think we have him on a pretty good contract right now the way it has gone in this league as far as contracts with defensemen. He has been good for us. I worry about him out of our lineup, it would be a big hole for us."
Last season, the Flyers were surprisingly in a playoff spot as the trade deadline approached. However, Briere didn't lose sight of the team's rebuild by moving Sean Walker, one of his top players on the back end, in a trade package that netted the Flyers a first-round pick. Walker was on an expiring contract, which gave the Flyers more incentive to pull the trigger.
This season, the Flyers are 21-20-6 entering Tuesday and four points out of the Eastern Conference's second wild-card spot. They're expected to have a similar approach at this deadline. They'll be open-minded and the future will be the focus.
"Nothing has changed, it's still the same for us," Briere said. "If there's something that makes sense for the future, we're going to look into it. I've had a lot of different conversations. Around the league, I think everybody is in the same spot, they're looking at what the options are and they're preparing for the deadline. There are many reasons for that, why it seems that it always happens closer to the deadline. I don't expect anything different this year.
"We're in different conversations and we're setting things up for crunch time. That's what happened last year, also. But we're always listening and if something makes too much sense for the future of this organization, we're going to take it."
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