If you had lined up all the stuff that was written and said about an impending Rasmus Ristolainen trade, it probably would have extended all the way back to Finland.<\/p>\n
But it didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
At Friday\u2019s post NHL trade deadline media session, Flyers general manager Daniel Briere wore a rueful smile when he sort of admonished the pundits who had the big defenseman headed elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou guys made a big story \u2013 I didn\u2019t know I was trying to sell him,\u201d Briere said at the Flyers Training Center. \u201cYou guys made it sound like we were dumping \u2018Risto\u2019 for next to nothing.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, at the end of the day, Risto has a lot of value to our team. I wasn\u2019t trying to dump Risto, trying to get rid of him. I think the media turned it into a little bit of a circus to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Full disclosure, Ristolainen did practice with the team on Friday afternoon, so just about everyone knew early on no deal was forthcoming.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get it, it\u2019s part of the job,\u201d Briere said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s part of my job to deal with that. The reality is he\u2019s an important part of our defense. He\u2019s under contract next season ($5.1 million). So we weren\u2019t looking to dump him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plus, if the Flyers had sent Ristolainen packing, it might have sent the wrong kind of message to a team which still believes it has a shot at the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere do you find 6-4, physical top four right-shot defensemen,\u201d Briere said. \u201cThere\u2019s not a lot. Yes, I did get a lot of calls and we took them seriously. We went through all the teams that were serious.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the end of the day it just didn\u2019t make sense value-wise. There was no sense to trade him for what he brings. I can promise you our guys prefer having him on our side than against them. He\u2019s a guy who brings defensemen to the fight. He runs around and pisses off opponents. There\u2019s a lot of value to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
It might have been different if there was a lot of young talent coming up through the ranks on defense. But aside from Oliver Bonk and newly acquired David Jiricek, no one is exactly breaking down any doors.<\/p>\n
Briere wouldn\u2019t get into specifics about what other teams were offering but said the price for Ristolainen wasn\u2019t right for the Flyers\u2019 current needs.<\/p>\n
Sending wrong message<\/p>\n
With the Flyers on the perimeter of the battle for a playoff spot, Briere confirmed his team didn\u2019t want to just unload a player of Ristolainen\u2019s talent. That would sort of be like waving a white flag.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is we are where we are in the standings,\u201d Briere said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just the six points. It\u2019s also having to leapfrog at least four or five teams. That\u2019s probably the toughest part.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe looked mostly for value. In the (Bobby) Brink trade for David (Jiricek), when we talked about the different teams with Risto, it was the same thing. It was about value. The plan never changed as far as looking to the future. But I expect us to keep playing to win every single game. We\u2019re building winners, we don\u2019t want to cut corners or tell them to not win. I think that is important for the culture you\u2019re trying to build.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glendening picked up on waivers<\/p>\n
The Flyers picked up forward Luke Glendening off waivers from New Jersey on Friday. The 36-year-old forward has played parts of 13 seasons with Detroit, Dallas, Tampa Bay and New Jersey and registered 83 goals\/170 points.<\/p>\n
Deslauriers to Carolina<\/p>\n
Nicolas Deslauriers was traded to Carolina for a seventh-round draft pick in 2027. Basically, the veteran wing wanted to play for a contender near the end of his career and Briere accommodated him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a great protector of our guys for the last few years,\u201d Briere said. \u201cNick wasn\u2019t looking to leave, he loves it here. His family is staying in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foerster update<\/p>\n
Tyson Foerster, out since December due to surgery for an upper-body injury, has been skating and remains a possibility if the Flyers make the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s pretty much on pace,\u201d Briere said. \u201cIt would be nice if we could get in the playoff hunt. So far it\u2019s going well. He\u2019s trending in the right direction. I know he\u2019s going to be knocking on my door soon to get back in the lineup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Short shots<\/p>\n
Denver Barkey and Adam Ginning were sent to Lehigh Valley but Barkey is expected to be back shortly. . .Briere said defenseman Nick Seeler is doubtful for Saturday at Pittsburgh but could be ready for Monday against the Rangers.<\/p>\n
Wayne Fish is a freelance writer. www.flyingfishhockey.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you had lined up all the stuff that was written and said about an impending Rasmus Ristolainen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,5,4,1467,56,5205,43,5095],"class_list":{"0":"post-491327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-flyers","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","13":"tag-philadelphiaflyers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116188160007064074","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491327","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=491327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}