Buffalo Sabres: Rasmus Ristolainen player profile

The Buffalo Sabres will have defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen looking to improve on his strong 3 year run.

Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen is entering his sixth season with the club. Ristolainen was drafted 8th overall by the Sabres in the 2013 NHL draft out of TPS Turku in Finland.

Ristolainen joined the Sabres immediately after training camp his rookie year before being sent back to Rochester in November. They year was highlighted by scoring the “Golden Goal” at the World Junior Championships. Ristolainen then bounced back and forth between Buffalo and Rochester, playing a total of 34 games in the NHL his rookie year.

The 2014-15 season began a four year run as a full time defenseman for the Sabres. Over the last 4 seasons, Rasmus Ristolainen has been the Sabres most consistent defenseman. Ristolainen has played the most games (89 games more than the next person), has the most points (101 more than Jake McCabe who is second on the list), and has almost more than double the points per game than any other defenseman.

In addition to his cumulative statistics, Ristolainen has led the Sabres’ defenseman in time on the ice, points, and games played in each of the last 3 seasons.

Rasmus Rositlainen’s first five seasons are cumulatively one of the best runs for a Buffalo Sabres defenseman in franchise history. Outside of current Sabres’ head coach Phil Housley, Ristolainen has had the most productive starts to a career for a Buffalo Sabres defenseman.

2017-18 Review

In addition to leading the team in games played, time on the ice, and points by defensemen for the third straight season, Rasmus Ristolainen was also the Sabres’ most consistent defenseman.

Paired alongside Marco Scandella, the pair were on the ice together almost 26% of the time at even strength, by far the highest for the Sabres. Additionally, Ristolainen was the go to defenseman on the power play as well as the penalty kill.

Ristolainen continuesdto be the leader of the defense while putting up the best possession numbers of his career last season and regularly leading the team in GA/60. The combination of poor play and injuries among the Buffalo Sabres defensemen has sthrust Ristolainen in the top defenseman role.

2018-19 Forecast

Phil Housley will see his defense be a lot stronger this upcoming season. Buffalo’s lottery luck brought them Swedish defensive phenom Rasmus Dahlin. Zach Bogosian is also coming into training camp at full strength after missing significant parts of the last 5 seasons.

With an improved defense, there will be less pressure on Ristolainen. The soon to be 24 year old defenseman should not be expected to play as many minutes as he had the last few seasons. The Sabres still have high expectations for Ristolainen though who is in year 3 of a 6 year contract which has him as the highest paid defenseman on the Sabres.

Rasmus Ristolainen will most likely start the season paired with Marco Scandella with Dahlin skating with veteran defenseman Bogosian. It is fair to assume that Ristolainen will also continue to see time on special teams as well as facing other teams’ top lines. At this point it looks we will not be getting the highly anticipated Rasmus-Rasmus pairing.

What are your expectation for Rasmus Ristolainen? Let us know in the comment section below.