It was another season that saw Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen finish the year on injured reserve. However, he did show that the previous season’s improvements weren’t a mirage–he really did improve under the tutelage of Brad Shaw and John Tortorella.
For some, that makes Ristolainen remaining on the Flyers a hard pill to swallow; at 30 years old, he’s clearly not a part of the long-term solution in Philadelphia. The good news is that, as long as he’s here, it appears he’s going to be a solid top-four defenseman–and for a while this year, he was ostensibly the Flyers’ number one.