{"id":391695,"date":"2026-01-05T11:34:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T11:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/391695\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T11:34:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T11:34:34","slug":"flyers-defense-has-full-look-with-rasmus-ristolainens-return-nbc-sports-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/391695\/","title":{"rendered":"Flyers\u2019 defense has full look with Rasmus Ristolainen\u2019s return \u2013 NBC Sports Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

After going over nine months without game action, Rasmus Ristolainen will make his season debut Tuesday when the Flyers face the Canadiens at Bell Centre (7 p.m. ET\/NBCSP).<\/p>\n

Ristolainen will return from his second triceps tendon injury. The 31-year-old defenseman had been recovering after having surgery in March<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Flyers also got Cam York back in the lineup Sunday night<\/a> after he had missed the last four games with an upper-body injury<\/a>. With the returns of Ristolainen and York, the Flyers now have a fully healthy defense.<\/p>\n

“When those two guys come back, it’s like making a really good trade,” Rick Tocchet said last Wednesday<\/a>. “You’re getting two quality D-men in the lineup that know how to play D, know how to play without the puck. Risto has got a great shot. It’s good to have a guy back there who has got a bomb. Yorky’s intelligence in defending. It’s like making a major trade for us.”<\/p>\n

Here were the projected defensive pairs we looked at last week:<\/p>\n

Cam York-Travis Sanheim
Emil Andrae-Jamie Drysdale
Nick Seeler-Rasmus Ristolainen<\/p>\n

Update: Ristolainen plays effective game in Flyers’ win over Canadiens<\/a><\/p>\n

Prior to his injury, Ristolainen may have been playing the best hockey of his career. Last season, the 6-foot-4 righty shot had four goals, 15 assists and only 14 penalty minutes in 63 games while logging 20:31 minutes a night. Over his last 43 games, he recorded 16 points (three goals, 13 assists) and a plus-10 rating.<\/p>\n

The Flyers had to make a roster move to activate Ristolainen off injured reserve. Ty Murchison, who made his NHL debut a week ago<\/a> and was waivers exempt, was sent back to AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After going over nine months without game action, Rasmus Ristolainen will make his season debut Tuesday when the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,2575,5,4,1467,56,5205],"class_list":{"0":"post-391695","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-flyers","9":"tag-flyers-news","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","14":"tag-philadelphiaflyers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115842283432775389","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}