Mailbag: Flyers' Ristolainen potential trade target, Rangers could sell

Here is the Jan. 15 edition of the weekly NHL.com mailbag, where we answer your questions asked on X and Bluesky. Send your questions to @drosennhl and @NHLdotcom on X, or @drosennhl.bsky.social on Bluesky, and tag them with #OvertheBoards.

What is Rasmus Ristolainen's trade value and what teams will be interested? -- @MattEdwardsPR

Ristolainen is an interesting one because the Philadelphia Flyers defenseman is not a pending unrestricted free agent, but he could be available in a trade. The Flyers are likely going to be sellers again ahead of the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline on March 7, but moving Ristolainen would require a more significant return because he's signed for two more seasons beyond this one with a $5.1 million average annual value. They should be looking at a young player with some NHL games on his resume or an intriguing prospect in return because of the value Ristolainen has remaining on his deal. He's 30 years old and is a physical, reliable defender who is strong on the penalty kill and can quarterback a power-play unit. Ristolainen could easily play 18-20 minutes per game for a contender in a second- or third-pair role. Flyers coach John Tortorella talked about him Monday, saying he's using his legs more to escape pressure and not as focused on trying to make a big hit. It's helped his game and is a reason why he's become even more valuable to the Flyers.

The Dallas Stars are a team that should have interest. They're short on right shot defensemen. Ristolainen fills that need. The Stars are a Stanley Cup contender, so they want to fill out their depth. They plan to remain a Cup contender for several years and Ristolainen can be a part of that. If they can sweeten the deal to get the Flyers to retain some salary, that would be even better.

Lian Bichsel, Dallas' 6-foot-7, 231-pound left-shot defenseman, is exactly the type of player the Flyers should be targeting. He's 20 years old and a first-round pick (No. 18) in the 2022 NHL Draft. He has a future in the NHL, but the Stars are loaded on the left side with Miro Heiskanen, Esa Lindell and Thomas Harley locked in. Would they be interested in trading Bischel, who has two goals in eight NHL games this season, in a deal that lands them Ristolainen? They might not be, but that's the type of player and trade the Flyers should be targeting.

If the Rangers are in a wild-card spot by the trade deadline, should they be buyers or sellers? -- @spagnoli61.bsky.social

I answered a question last week asking how far out the Rangers have to be for them to become sellers. My response was that it shouldn't matter and that they should sell anyway. I stand by that. They've played better of late but need a retool and should be smart sellers.

Pending unrestricted free agents like defenseman Ryan Lindgren, and forwards Reilly Smith and Jimmy Vesey, can be traded for draft picks in the same way the Washington Capitals traded Evgeny Kuznetsov and Anthony Mantha for picks before the deadline last season. The Rangers can replace Lindgren, Smith and Vesey by elevating defenseman Victor Mancini and forward Brennan Othmann from Hartford of the American Hockey League, and potentially signing forward Gabe Perreault, their best prospect, out of Boston College once his NCAA season is over. They can bring back Brett Berard from Hartford too, and maybe forward Adam Sykora and/or defenseman Matthew Robertson could get a look.

The Rangers, even with Igor Shesterkin in net, are not strong enough this season to be considered a Stanley Cup contender. There's more than a half of season worth of games that show their inconsistencies in defending against the rush and generating 5-on-5 offense. They could play their way back into the Stanley Cup Playoff mix, but that shouldn't impact their long-range planning. They're like the Capitals were last season: not good enough to contend, not nearly bad enough to believe the draft lottery can be a savior, so sell. Making the playoffs could still happen, but a smart offseason retool may get the Rangers right back to being a Cup contender next season.

What do you think the League appetite is for someone like Ryan Lindgren, especially with the Rangers ability to retain money? -- @99Reedballoons

Lindgren has value. The Rangers could retain salary too, which increases his value. He's on a one-year, $4.5 million contract and the type of defenseman Stanley Cup contenders covet. He throws his body around, plays physical, blocks shots, kills penalties and plays through obvious pain while skating 20 minutes per game. He has played 43 playoff games, twice gone to the Eastern Conference Final and is regularly paired with Adam Fox, a Norris Trophy-winning defenseman. He knows his role and plays it well. There's obvious injury concern because of how he plays, but he's only missed three of a possible 46 postseason games. The Rangers should be able to move him on the rental market for decent value (i.e. draft pick, prospect or a combination).

When will Seattle do a proper rebuild? -- @KevinK_92

This isn't fair to the Kraken. How can you rebuild when you're still in the process of building onto your foundation for the first time? The Kraken are in their fourth season. They made the playoffs once. They've had a total of 36 draft picks, four who have played in the NHL led by Matty Beniers. They're on their second coach. They have five players who are 23 or younger on the active roster. They haven't been able to land a star, game-breaking player, which is a fair criticism, but 11 players from their inaugural team in 2021-22 remain on the roster, so there has been some turnover. It's still early in the franchise's history and way too early to do a rebuild, especially considering Coachella Valley is in its third straight season of being a premier AHL team.

The Firebirds reached the Calder Cup Final each of the past two seasons, losing to the Hershey Bears, who are the premier AHL team and top minor-league affiliate of the Capitals. Coachella Valley is second in the Pacific Division and on pace to reach the Calder Cup Playoffs again. Ten draft picks have played or are playing there this season including Eduard Sale, a 19-year-old forward chosen in the first round (No. 23) of the 2023 NHL Draft. Seven picks played in the Calder Cup Playoffs last season. Dan Bylsma was the Firebirds' coach then, and he's Seattle's coach now. It's fair to criticize the Kraken for not acquiring a gamebreaker yet, but slow down on rebuild talk. They're still building on the foundation.

With a markedly improved team, how could an entire community of hockey experts be so wrong about the Capitals? Not a single expert had them making the playoffs. -- @jakopz.bsky.social

Predictions are made based on knowledge of the League, teams, last season's performance, player movement, player development, coaching, etc. They're made from education and reporting, but nobody can say they're an expert when there is so much parity in the NHL.

The Capitals changed over a third of their roster in the offseason, including taking what was at the time a gamble on forward Pierre-Luc Dubois. Nobody knew how that was going to work out. Nobody knew if Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas would take the next steps in their development. Could Alex Ovechkin go on a goal-scoring surge at 39 years old? Would the new players fit? There were too many questions. Two of the 15 staff members who did predictions for NHL.com had Washington in the playoffs, but all 15 had both the Rangers and Nashville Predators. The Rangers were running it back from a team that reached the Eastern Conference Final. There was a lot of optimism. The Predators were known as the team that won the offseason with the additions of Jonathan Marchessault, Steven Stamkos and Brady Skjei to an already solid roster. There was a lot of optimism. It's been a struggle for both, but at prediction time it made sense to be high on those teams and queasy on the Capitals. Things change. Opinions change. If everyone was an expert, we'd have nothing to talk about. Being proven wrong makes it fun too.

Why does the NHL track the efficiency of power plays via a simple goals per chance equation? The real data is goals per minute or something similar. A two-second power play counts the same as a four-minute double minor. -- @osco81x

The reason to track power-play efficiency based on goals per power-play opportunity likely has a lot to do with the integrity and continuity of statistics over time. Records rely on integrity and continuity of statistics, so calculating power-play efficiency in goals per minute on the man-advantage is certainly reasonable and can provide a strong indication of the strength of a power play.

You're correct in pointing out that a two-second power play counts the same as a four-minute double minor. A team also can't be perfect on a five-minute major power play because the power play expires on minutes, not on a goal scored, so if a team scores three goals on a five-minute major it is still 3-for-4 because it ended on the power play. It's hard to say if it's better to measure power-play efficiency on goals scored per minute, but it's certainly another way of doing it. Teams likely have various ways they measure success: scoring chances, location of shots, time spent in the offensive zone and, of course, goals. This question could send me down a rabbit hole of stats too, so let's leave it at that.