Sabres: What to expect from Rasmus Ristolainen in 2021

Rasmus Ristolainen has been one of the primary defenders for the Sabres over the past few years. What should we expect from Ristolainen this season?

The future of Rasmus Ristolainen with the Buffalo Sabres has been up in the air over the past season or so. But Sabres head coach Ralph Krueger came out earlier this offseason and said that he expects Risto to stay with the team.

Ristolainen played in 69 games last season and had 33 points with six goals and 27 assists. He averaged 22:48 of ice time in each game, which led the team. So Buffalo still trusts him to be their number one defensemen.

Buffalo has struggled with their defensive depth in recent seasons, so when Ristolainen is playing well, he has a big role with the team. The Sabres should prefer to hold on to talent such as Ristolainen as he is a quality player in a position of need for Buffalo.

He has recently expressed his displeasure with the Sabres and how unsuccessful they have been since he has been with the team. This could be why there have been recent trade rumors revolving around him. And with only two years left on his contract, if the Sabres don’t expect him to re-sign with them, he would likely be a piece that could get traded from Buffalo.

Since the Sabres drafted Ristolainen in 2013, Buffalo has not had a playoff birth or even a season with a winning record. The closest to .500 they have been was the 2015-2016 season when the Sabres had a 35-36-11 record and 81 points.

I would love to see Ristolainen play on a successful Buffalo team, as he seems to be desperate to do so. And he may want out sooner rather than later if that doesn’t happen soon.

It will be interesting to see where he is placed in the lineup this season. I expect him to get the most ice time against this year. But I would not be surprised if the Sabres decided to try to get more time on the ice for Rasmus Dahlin in 5v5 situations and potentially cut into Ristolainen’s ice time.

Only time will tell how Buffalo handles their defensive pairings, especially at the beginning of the season. I expect to see Ristolainen get a lot of ice time, much like he did last season. But I feel that there could be plenty of rotation between pairings to try and find what works the best.

I also expect to see more Ristolainen trade rumors start to surface if the Sabres begin to struggle, as he has made it pretty obvious that he wants to play for a successful team.