Rasmus Ristolainen out two weeks after reaggravating upper-body injury
Ristolainen only returned Saturday against Anaheim after missing nine games with the same ailment. It is the latest in a long history of injuries for the Flyers defenseman.
Rasmus Ristolainen is out again.
The Flyers defenseman returned on Saturday in the loss to the Anaheim Ducks after missing nine games with a hand injury. On Monday, coach Rick Tocchet said he reaggravated the injury, calling it “kind of a bad-luck injury.” Just moments before, the Flyers had announced that Ristolainen is expected to miss approximately two weeks.
In the third game of the season, Ristolainen took a shot from Carolina Hurricanes defenseman K’Andre Miller to the left hand with 3 minutes, 31 seconds left in the second period. He finished that shift, which lasted another minute, missed the next one, and played one 37-second shift to start the third period before leaving the game.
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On Saturday, Ristolainen played more than 14 minutes, starting on the third pairing with rookie Hunter McDonald before moving up for a few shifts with his old partner, Travis Sanheim.
The Finnish blueliner, who turns 32 on Tuesday, is an unrestricted free agent after this season and has been the target of trade chatter for years. With a game built for the postseason, and after Ristolainen’s strong playoff debut this past spring with the Flyers, it seemed he would be moved this past summer for assets.
Instead, he stuck around and is now facing another season marred by injuries.
Acquired from the Buffalo Sabres in July 2021, Ristolainen has not played a full season in Philly; he played one 82-game season in Buffalo across eight years. He has missed almost half of the 423 regular-season games he could have played with the Flyers, skating in just 282 across six seasons, and has appeared in only two season openers, in 2024 and 2026.
In 2023-24, he didn’t make his debut until Nov. 25 because of an undisclosed lower-body injury and then suffered an upper-body injury in mid-February that caused him to miss the rest of the season.
It was disclosed in April 2024 that he had undergone two surgeries in the same place, one being a repair to a ruptured triceps tendon. He disclosed during the 2025 training camp that he tried to rehab and get back after the first one during the season but had to undergo another procedure after the season.
The 2024-25 season was healthier, with him missing 19 games, but they came in a big chunk, as he played his final game of the season on March 11 after a right triceps tendon rupture. Flyers general manager Danny Brière said in April 2025 that the injury was similar, although he would not confirm whether he suffered a torn tendon again.
Last season, Ristolainen did not make his season debut until December but then dealt with other injuries in late January. However, he finished strong playing with Sanheim, winning bronze with Finland at the Olympics, and putting up five points in 10 playoff games with the Flyers.
