Flyers’ Rasmus Ristolainen expected to miss remainder of season due to upper-body injury

Philadelphia Flyers veteran defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen is not expected to return to the lineup for the remainder of the 2024-25 campaign as he continues to recover from an upper-body injury, Flyers interim head coach Brad Shaw confirmed Monday per Jordan Hall of NBC Sports Philadelphia.

Sidelined for the past nine games since sustaining the injury, Ristolainen has made 63 appearances with the Flyers this season in which he has registered four goals and 15 assists for 19 points coupled with 14 penalty minutes and a plus-three rating while averaging 20:31 in time on ice per game, third among Flyers rearguards.

Originally chosen eighth overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 2013 NHL Draft, Ristolainen joined the Flyers in the 2021 offseason in exchange for fellow defenseman Robert Hagg plus two draft selections including the Flyers’ first-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft. In all, through 776 career contests split between the Sabres and Flyers, Ristolainen has recorded 56 goals and 248 assists for 304 points. As part of the Sabres, Ristolainen notched four consecutive 40-plus point seasons underscored by the 2016-17 campaign where through 79 outings he reached a career-high 45 points counting six goals and 39 assists. Through his 12-year NHL career, the 30-year-old Finnish-born blue-liner has yet to play a game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Per PuckPedia, Ristolainen is in the third year of a five-year pact that carries a $5.1-million annual average value.

For the Flyers, on the season the club sits 30-36-9 and eight points back of the Montreal Canadiens for the second wildcard seed in the Eastern Conference. Since dismissing former bench boss John Tortorella last Thursday, the Flyers have pieced together a two-game win streak and will try for their third consecutive victory when the club returns to the ice Monday to take on the Nashville Predators.