The excitement is big, night in and night out with this new-look Sabres team. It’s easy to get lost in the dekes and dangles of Jack Eichel and Ryan O’Reilly, the posting in front of the net by Sam Reinhart and the crazy quick shot of Evander Kane. But there’s one guy back on the blue line that has been holding this team together, and Tim Murray and Co. must make sure he doesn’t leave.
Rasmus Ristolainen fell into the Sabres lap in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft after big talk that Nashville was looking to take him at number four overall. Maybe it wasn’t quite a “Sabres select Jack Eichel” moment, but the Sabres knew who they wanted. And boy, is Risto making them look pretty smart nowadays.
Negotiating an extension is something that Ristolainen has earned and that the Sabres should be excited for. Not only has his play on the ice been ridiculously good, he is in the top 10 in NHL defensemen in goals, assists and points, but he is also earning the respect of the veterans on the team.
Ristolainen’s contract is up at the end of this season and will be a restricted free agent.
The Finnish product has played extensively with 12 year veteran Josh Gorges as a pair this year. Gorges continuously has nothing but praise when asked about the youngster.
“He [Ristolainen] continues to grow and continues to get better,” Gorges said. “And he’s not doing anything miraculous, he’s finding the open guy, he’s winning his battles, he’s composed when he has the puck.”
How long has it been since the Sabres could say they’ve had a blue-chip D-man? It was only five years ago that similar things were being said about Tyler Myers, who won the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie with Buffalo. After two monster years, Myers seemed to have regressed and Buffalo shipped him out to Winnipeg in the exchange for Evander Kane and Zach Bogosian.
But Myers set a little bit of a precedent with the extension the Sabres gave him. Myers was 21 years old, the same age Ristolainen is now, when he inked up for seven more years. The total cost was $38.5M, for a $5.5M annual average value, or AAV. That was back in 2011, but the bar is still virtually the same now.
Two other contracts were handed out to quality young defensemen this year, Nick Leddy of the Islanders and Dougie Hamilton of the Flames. Leddy, 23, signed an identical contract to the one Myers did four years ago. He will get $38.5M over the next seven years. Hamilton, 22, opted for a year less with a slightly larger AAV. He put pen to paper for $34.5M over six years, for a $5.75M AAV.
With these three contracts in front of them, the Sabres and Ristolainen have a starting ground from where they should be looking. Ristolainen will no doubt point to production on the ice to top these contracts, as he should.
In 2014-2015, Ristolainen potted eight goals and 12 assists, for a mere 20 points. A solid season, but made even more impressive by the fact he was just 20 years old. Myers tallied seven goals and 21 assists, a quality season. Leddy finished with 10G and 27A, while Hamilton came in the big winner at 10G and 32A. Ristolainen was still learning on the ice, notching 20:37 of average time on ice, slotting right in between Leddy and Hamilton, with Myers a decent chunk ahead of the bunch at over 24 minutes.
This season has been a different story. Ristolainen looks so damn comfortable out there, like he’s the grizzled vet of the team. He takes over 30 shifts a game while his time per game has skyrocketed to 24:34 per contest, a number that just keeps going up. Leddy is up to over 22 minutes, while Hamilton took a dive down to under 20 per game. Myers has been around 21:30 for the Jets.
The most impressive thing about Ristolainen and his time on ice is that he has 0, that’s a goose egg, penalty minutes. He is breaking up cross-ice passes, using his body on the glass, clearing the zone constantly on the penalty kill, but never has he had to sit in the box through this season’s first 33 games.
And then you get to the offensive statistics, where Risto has blown away his age-wise competition. Leddy hasn’t scored yet, but has nine helpers on the year. Myers is sitting at two goals and eight assists, and Hamilton is coming alive as of late to give him four tallies with seven assists, good for 11 points.
Ristolainen has seven goals, four on the power play, and 17 assists, good for almost three-quarters of a point a game. He is blowing away Leddy, Hamilton and Myers in goals, assists, power play points, time on ice and pretty much anything else you can think of.
While believing early in a young defenseman in Myers and giving him an extension backfired on the Sabres, Ristolainen appears to be a different case. You can draw parallels to their games, but they’re honestly unjustified. Risto has been as good as it gets, and you can see the continued improvements every time he laces up the skates. He has to get rewarded in the way of these types of extensions, and he will set up as a corner stone for the Sabres, with Eichel, Reinhart and O’Reilly.
So just how much is Ristolainen worth? Ding ding ding, that’s the million dollar question…just how many millions is the answer? I think the Sabres need to be willing to eclipse the $6M AAV mark, something we haven’t seen with these recent contracts. If they want to hold steady with the seven years that has been going, I think Ristolainen deserves every penny of a 7 year, $42M extension.
Where’s Tim Murray? Where’s Rasmus and his agent? Let’s get them together and get this done before the price gets astronomical (I’m talking to you, PK Subban). Ristolainen deserves an extension and the Sabres deserve to have him leading their blue line for years to come.