> **Q: Rasmus Ristolainen did not get moved at the trade deadline. How do you foresee your future on defense with him still here? Are you planning on making other adjustments?**
> We’re always looking. We didn’t feel there was enough value to move him for what he brings and what he’s going to bring next year as well. And then when you look at like the young guys that we have, Jiříček, [Oliver] Bonk, who’s getting closer, Hunter McDonald is another guy who improved this year — you have to be careful when to bring them in, what kind of position you put them in to succeed. I think in a sense, you saw it with Drysdale; expectations were raised too high in his case. I don’t know if it was the case with David in his previous stop. Our goal as an organization is to put those kids in the best position to have a chance to succeed and not overload them with unrealistic goals.
>So having Risto around is going to help in that regard, and we’ll see where it goes. He’s a top-four defenseman, and honestly, there’s probably not going to be, and I don’t know that for sure, **but there’s probably not going to be a big difference in the value [we got offered for him] next year than what we got this year. People have to realize that other teams are also aware that Risto was hurt for most of the year.** He was hurt for the last part of last year. He was hurt and didn’t come back until December, and then got dinged up a lot. People do their research, other teams do their research, too, and it’s obviously something that teams were worried about.
So we priced Risto higher than team were willing to pay even while knowing teams consider how injury prone he is? And we kept him thinking that the offers next year won’t be any better?
Embarrassed-Expert61
Just trade Risto in the offseason, nobody’s all of a sudden going to forget his Olympics. Let him play out the rest of the year, and package him with 50% retention and Tippett to Seattle or San Jose for a young top 6 center. You can’t tell me San Jose wouldn’t be all over having a top 6 winger in his prime and a steady D presence on their island of misfit defensemen
4 Comments
> **Q: Rasmus Ristolainen did not get moved at the trade deadline. How do you foresee your future on defense with him still here? Are you planning on making other adjustments?**
> We’re always looking. We didn’t feel there was enough value to move him for what he brings and what he’s going to bring next year as well. And then when you look at like the young guys that we have, Jiříček, [Oliver] Bonk, who’s getting closer, Hunter McDonald is another guy who improved this year — you have to be careful when to bring them in, what kind of position you put them in to succeed. I think in a sense, you saw it with Drysdale; expectations were raised too high in his case. I don’t know if it was the case with David in his previous stop. Our goal as an organization is to put those kids in the best position to have a chance to succeed and not overload them with unrealistic goals.
>So having Risto around is going to help in that regard, and we’ll see where it goes. He’s a top-four defenseman, and honestly, there’s probably not going to be, and I don’t know that for sure, **but there’s probably not going to be a big difference in the value [we got offered for him] next year than what we got this year. People have to realize that other teams are also aware that Risto was hurt for most of the year.** He was hurt for the last part of last year. He was hurt and didn’t come back until December, and then got dinged up a lot. People do their research, other teams do their research, too, and it’s obviously something that teams were worried about.
So we priced Risto higher than team were willing to pay even while knowing teams consider how injury prone he is? And we kept him thinking that the offers next year won’t be any better?
Just trade Risto in the offseason, nobody’s all of a sudden going to forget his Olympics. Let him play out the rest of the year, and package him with 50% retention and Tippett to Seattle or San Jose for a young top 6 center. You can’t tell me San Jose wouldn’t be all over having a top 6 winger in his prime and a steady D presence on their island of misfit defensemen
How long until Risto is hurt again?
Can someone post the full Q&A?