Player Report Card: Rasmus Ristolainen

Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY SportsTotal Season Stats: 78 GP | 5 G | 38 A | 43 PTS

Age: 24

Contract Status: Under contract until 2022-23 (UFA)

For the fourth straight season, Rasmus Ristolainen tallied 40+ points. For some defenseman, that would be considered a good campaign. For Ristolainen, it seems like a smokescreen.

Ristolainen’s play has been much-maligned throughout the last handful of years and this past season is no different.

Expected to be the Sabres number one defenseman, Ristolainen logged number one defenseman minutes at 24:38 time-on-ice per game.

When you peel back the statistics though, things turn sour very quickly.

On the surface, we know that plus / minus has become an antiquated…