This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Rasmus Ristolainen
Philadelphia Flyers Defense
A career minus-182, the worst figure in this edition by fifty-two goals, and 57.2 per cent of the chances last season.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-14 | BUF | 34 | 2 | 2 | 4 | -15 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 52 | 3.9 | 19:07 |
| 2014-15 | BUF | 78 | 8 | 12 | 20 | -32 | 26 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 121 | 6.6 | 20:37 |
| 2015-16 | BUF | 82 | 9 | 32 | 41 | -21 | 33 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 202 | 4.5 | 25:17 |
| 2016-17 | BUF | 79 | 6 | 39 | 45 | -9 | 58 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 186 | 3.2 | 26:28 |
| 2017-18 | BUF | 73 | 6 | 35 | 41 | -25 | 48 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 182 | 3.3 | 26:30 |
| 2018-19 | BUF | 78 | 5 | 38 | 43 | -41 | 38 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 182 | 2.8 | 24:38 |
| 2019-20 | BUF | 69 | 6 | 27 | 33 | -2 | 46 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 128 | 4.7 | 22:48 |
| 2020-21 | BUF | 49 | 4 | 14 | 18 | -18 | 36 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 73 | 5.5 | 22:17 |
| 2021-22 | PHI | 66 | 2 | 14 | 16 | -9 | 38 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 97 | 2.1 | 21:26 |
| 2022-23 | PHI | 74 | 3 | 17 | 20 | -4 | 32 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 86 | 3.5 | 19:01 |
| 2023-24 | PHI | 31 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -6 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 46 | 2.2 | 16:41 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 713 | 52 | 233 | 285 | -182 | 369 | 15 | 1 | 6 | 1355 | 3.8 | 22:50 |
This Season So Far
The 2024-25 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
31 games, 1 goal and 3 assists for 4 points, 8 penalty minutes, 16:41 a night and minus-6. He took 57.2 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 461 minutes, the 94th percentile and the second-best share on the club, and his ice went 18-20 against an expectation of 21.47-16.08.
Three goals of finishing below what the chances were worth and four more conceded than they called for. Thirty-one games is the fewest of his eleven seasons.
The Finesse Game
60 attempts at a median of 47 feet with 63 per cent of them from beyond forty, 46 of those on goal, converted at 2.2 per cent against a career 3.84 across 1,355 shots.
233 career assists in 713 games. He put up 41, 45 and 41 points in three consecutive seasons in Buffalo taking twenty-six minutes a night, and has not been used that way since; the passing is better than the reputation and the decisions with the puck are the part that has always cost.
The Physical Game
He is 6-4 and 208 and took 8 penalty minutes in 31 games.
369 career penalty minutes in 713 games. He is genuinely heavy, punishes forwards along the wall and clears the front of his net by moving people out of it, and at 6-4 and 208 there are very few forwards who go through him.
The Intangibles
Eighth overall in 2013 by Buffalo, eleven seasons, two organisations, 285 points in 713 games and a career minus-182 — the worst figure of anybody in this edition, by fifty-two goals.
He took 57.2 per cent of the chances in 31 games last season, which is the 94th percentile. Eight seasons in Buffalo on clubs that were routinely outscored is most of what the minus-182 is, and this is the evidence for that reading.
What kind of player
The searchable half of the report. The first group is computed from the season's own data; the rest are read out of the prose above, and each one carries the sentence that produced it. A subject the report never raised is simply absent.
- measuredcomputed here from the season's own data
- a strengthread out of the prose, and claimed
Each computed tag also says how well its measure holds up from one season to the next, because a tag describes a season that has finished and a reader will assume it predicts the one coming. Some do and some do not, and the gap is wide: five-on-five workload repeats well, scoring late does not repeat at all.
- drives-play· the shot clock turns his way while he is out there
57.2% of the expected goals at five-on-five with him on, 52.0% for his club in the minutes he sat: +5.2, 94th percentile among defencemen
Season to season, this measure repeats moderately (0.39) · 29% keep it
“He is genuinely heavy, punishes forwards along the wall and clears the front of his net by moving people out of it, and at 6-4 and 208 there are very few forwards who go through him.”
“369 career penalty minutes in 713 games.”
“He is 6-4 and 208 and took 8 penalty minutes in 31 games.”
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 461 minutes
- Expected goals
- 57.2%
- 95th pct
- Shot attempts
- 51.9%
- 71st pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 18 for, 20 against. Expected: 21.5 and 16.1.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 78 points above where the report does. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.
Both bars are percentiles among the 652 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 61 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Tracked
NHL Edge, 2023-24 · 31 games
- Top speed
- 21.3 mph
- 31st pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 0.42 a game
- Distance
- 2.29 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 96.4 mph
- 79th pct
fastest he was clocked all season; the league's average best is 21.7
how often he reaches that speed, not how fast he goes
skated, all strengths
one shot; the league's average best is 90.2
A top speed is a season's best, and a man who takes more shifts gets more tries at one; the percentile is the feed's own, against every skater, and says less between a top-pair defenceman and a fourth-line wing than it does between two men in the same job. The counts are shown per game for the same reason.
Usual linemates
2023-24 · 461 minutes at five-on-five
- Egor Zamula43%
- Marc Staaloff the roster17%
- Nick Seeler16%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2023-24
- The club
- PHI took 52.6% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 57.2% — 4.6 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third pair, 461 minutes at five-on-five — 15th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Egor Zamula | 51.1% | 62.1% | 48.6% |
| Joel Farabee | 61.2% | 55.5% | 50.6% |
| Cam Atkinson | 57.8% | 56.9% | 48.0% |
51.1% together, 62.1% for him apart and 48.6% for Zamula apart. He was better away from Zamula, who was no worse away from him — the pairing cost him more than it cost Zamula.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
60 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 1 of them goals. His median goal came from 18 feet. 10% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 63% from beyond forty.