For the duration of the Philadelphia Flyers playoff run, Hockey Hot Stove will highlight the chemistry of the Flyers players that drive the team to success. The feature is powered by our new playoff sponsor, Team Toyota.
Back in 2021-22 and the next season, Flyers defensemen Travis Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen played together fairly regularly as defense partners. During the first season, Alain Vigneault was Philly’s head coach. The next year, John Tortorella took over behind the bench.
Over the remainder of Tortorella’s tenure (plus Brad Shaw’s brief interim stint), Sanheim and Ristolainen did not see regular time as defense partners. Ristolainen missed considerable time with injuries (which continued through much of the first half of 2025-26 under new head coach Rick Tocchet). Moreover, Sanheim moved into a regular duo with Cam York.
However, shortly before the 2026 Olympics, Sanheim and Ristolainen were reunited. During the stretch drive — and so far in the playoffs — they have been one of the most effective pairings for any team in the postseason.
“I think we’ve both grown as players. Playing in the Olympics was a big thing for both of us. But I also think that it’s just our entire team is better,” Sanheim said, referring to his participation for Team Canada and Ristolainen’s key role for Team Finland at the 2026 Olympics in Milan.
“Both of us keep things maybe a little simpler than we used to. I feel like we don’t try to get too crazy, and yet, try to work off each other, try to make plays when we can, and yet be hard to play against. We’re both big guys. We take up a lot of the ice. Try to shut down plays as best we can. It’s been going pretty good.”
Within Philly’s Eastern Conference Quarterfinal playoff series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the duo has been outstanding in all zones. Even in Saturday’s Game Four loss, Sanheim and Ristolainen dominated. Defensively, they are killing plays at the blueline, asserting themselves down low and triggering breakouts. Offensively, they are making aggressive — but intelligent — pinches to help the forwards.
The trades you make, and the ones you don’t
After the 2022-23 season, Tortorella pushed hard internally for general manager Daniel Briere to get rid of Sanheim by any means necessary. Their first season together didn’t go well at all. The nadir was a game in Calgary (where Sanheim and twin brother Taylor played their junior hockey) where Tortorella drew upon one of his pet tactics of embarrassing out-of-favor players by scratching them in games in front of large gatherings of friends and family.
Tortorella didn’t just do that to Sanheim. He also did it to Morgan Frost in Toronto, Bobby Brink in Minnesota, and former Ranger Kevin Hayes at Madison Square Garden. Each and every time, the coach disingenuously insisted that the game’s location had nothing to do with the lineup decision. Never mind the fact that Sanheim’s lone healthy scratching was in Calgary, Frost’s lone lineup removal (that season) was in Toronto, and Hayes played in 81 games otherwise that season. Just a serious of coincidences.
That summer, Briere was prepared to accept an odious trade offer from the St. Louis Blues. The Blues offered fast-declining defenseman Torey Krug in exchange for Sanheim.
Thankfully for the Flyers — both in the immediate and long-term pictures — Krug refused to waive him no-trade clause to come to Philly.
Forced to continue working as coach and player, Tortorella and Sanheim turned the page. The defenseman, through his own work ethic and strong relationship with assistant coach Shaw, came into his own. Tortorella and Sanheim got into a better space with one another. The primary credit goes to the player.
Sometimes the best trades a team makes: ones they don’t make.
Flyers held firm on Ristolainen trade offers
Even discounting his divisive on-ice years with the Buffalo Sabres, Ristolainen had his own bumpy road in Philadelphia. Over the last two-plus seasons, Ristolainen missed considerable time due to surgeries to repair torn triceps. This year, the Flyers elected to hold on to Ristolainen at the NHL trade deadline. Briere set a very high price tag, and no team met the asking price. Ristolainen has one season remaining on his current contract.
Flyers coach Tocchet, for one, was very happy that Ristolainen stayed put.
“You put them over the boards, they’re big. They’re tough to get around. In the corners, in front of the net, they’re big guys, and when they play big like that, it wears the other teams down,” Tocchet said.
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