The lead story on Hockey Hot Stove is powered by Watrhouse Brands, dedicated to quality, consumer education and awareness: Benevolent Bakery, SoSHEL beverages and Smokiez vegan fruit chews. Today: Post-Olympic trade rumor about Rasmus Ristolainen.
The Edmonton Oilers will be active ahead of the NHL’s trade deadline on March 6th. They are a very talented team, but also have some definite holes to fill. One of those is a right-shot defenseman. Rasmus Ristolainen of the Philadelphia Flyers is gaining interest.
According to NHL insider Anthony Di Marco, “The Flyers got significant traction over the Olympic break on Ristolainen. That interest increased as the tournament went on and his play with Finland continued to impress.”
Di Marco also states that it seems like Ristolainen isn’t particularly fond of the idea of being traded. However, he heard there are five or six teams that have checked in on Ristolainen over the last two weeks.
Two of the teams Di Marco reports are showing interest in Ristolainen are the Oilers and the Boston Bruins. He points out that the Bruins may have been taking a cursory look, while the Oilers’ interest seems real.
Oilers in Need of a Defenseman
Edmonton’s been looking for a top-four, right-shot defenseman to play with Darnell Nurse for a long time. According to PuckPedia, the Oilers have just over $1 million projected in deadline cap space. It would take a financial wizard to find a way for them to take Ristolainen’s $5.1 million salary cap hit for this year and next.
Edmonton forward Andrew Mangiapane’s name has been in the rumor mill all season. His season with the Oilers has been an unmitigated disaster. He almost certainly has to be included in any trade to help make the money work.
Money is always a tricky thing for playoff-contending teams. They have to frequently push their cap right up to the limit just to get into contention. Then find ways to add with little wiggle room. If the Oilers can find a way to get Ristolainen, it would be a big addition in Edmonton.
