{"id":476122,"date":"2026-02-28T00:46:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T00:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/476122\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T00:46:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T00:46:31","slug":"canadiens-kicking-tires-on-rasmus-ristolainen-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/476122\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadiens Kicking Tires On Rasmus Ristolainen \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heading for their second consecutive postseason appearance, the Montreal Canadiens are looking on all fronts for trade deadline acquisitions. Earlier today, on 32 Thoughts<\/a>, Sportsnet\u2019s Elliotte Friedman reports that the Canadiens have checked in on Rasmus Ristolainen<\/a>\u2018s availability.<\/p>\n

The main roadblock for any target of Montreal will be their ability to shed cap space. According to PuckPedia<\/a>, the Canadiens have $1.49MM in space for the deadline, leaving them with very few options. Ristolainen, who\u2019s making a $5.1MM salary through next season, wouldn\u2019t be affordable at this time.<\/p>\n

Additionally, it\u2019s not clear where exactly Ristolainen would fit in the Canadiens\u2019 lineup. Montreal already has Lane Hutson<\/a>, Noah Dobson<\/a>, Mike Matheson<\/a>, and Kaiden Guhle<\/a> in its top four. There\u2019s no indication that the team would be eager to move any of them in a potential trade for Ristolainen, nor should they.<\/p>\n

That would only leave room in the bottom pairing for Ristolainen. Theoretically, the team could create a package around Alexandre Carrier<\/a> ($3.75MM AAV) to make the money work, but it\u2019s unlikely that the Philadelphia Flyers would be interested in him. Still, if Montreal wants to put its defensive corps over the top for the postseason, acquiring a blueliner like Ristolainen would certainly do that.<\/p>\n

Injuries have limited his availability over the past few years, but he has consistently performed well when healthy. Over the last two years with Philadelphia, Ristolainen has recorded five goals and 25 points in 84 games with a -2 rating, averaging 20:25 of ice time. Additionally, he\u2019s recorded 122 blocked shots and 118 hits over that stretch, proving his two-way effectiveness.<\/p>\n

Regardless, given their financial and roster limitations, it\u2019s unlikely that the Canadiens will acquire Ristolainen. Still, it doesn\u2019t hurt to reach out about any available player leading up to the deadline, especially for a team in Montreal\u2019s position. It is more likely that Ristolainen will end up with a team with a more significant void in their top-four, unlike the Canadiens, if he\u2019s moved at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heading for their second consecutive postseason appearance, the Montreal Canadiens are looking on all fronts for trade deadline…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[265,5,264,21,5147,4,56,4526],"class_list":{"0":"post-476122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-canadiens","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-montreal","11":"tag-montreal-canadiens","12":"tag-montrealcanadiens","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","15":"tag-rasmus-ristolainen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116145500463495656","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476122","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=476122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}