Flyers’ Rasmus Ristolainen out six months, will miss training camp after undergoing surgery

The Philadelphia Flyers announced Thursday that veteran defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen has undergone surgery on a torn tendon in his right triceps. Ristolainen is expected to miss training camp in the fall and will be sidelined for the next six months.

The surgery comes after Ristolainen missed the final 16 games of the 2024-25 regular season due to an upper-body injury. Ristolainen was also sidelined for a three-game stretch in early February related to an upper-body ailment.

On the season, Ristolainen made 63 appearances with Philadelphia in which he collected four goals and 15 assists for 19 points coupled with 14 penalty minutes and a plus-three rating while averaging more than 20 minutes of ice time per game, fourth most on the Flyers.

Originally chosen eighth overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 2013 NHL Draft, the 30-year-old Finnish-born blue-liner has since seen 776 career contests between the Sabres and Flyers in which he has registered 56 goals and 248 assists for 304 points. With the Sabres in 2016-17, Ristolainen notched six goals and 39 assists for 45 points in 79 games, one of four consecutive seasons in which he reached the 40-point plateau. Through his 12-year career, Ristolainen has never played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

In the 2021 offseason, the Flyers acquired Ristolainen from the Sabres in each for fellow rearguard Robert Hagg plus first- and second-round draft selections. To note, the coming campaign will see Ristolainen enter the fourth year of a five-year contract that carries a $5.1-million cap hit, according to PuckPedia.

For the Flyers, the club wrapped up the 2024-25 season with a 33-39-10 record and 76 points to rank at the bottom of the Eastern Conference and 15 points back of a wildcard position. The Flyers have not participated in the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2020.