To be honest if ANA wanted Ristolainen, they would’ve demanded him in the Montour deal.

I can't wait until BUF fans see how little Ristolainen is worth when he is traded.

Couldn't agree more, he is very overpaid for what he offers

Good thing Peter Chiarelli isn't still the GM, or your jinx comment would have prompted him to give Buffalo Nugent-Hopkins.

I cannot wait until every one else see how much Ristolainen is worth when is traded.
For the first 3 NHL years after DATM destroyed the defense, he was the only NHL caliper defenseman on the roster and Nolan, Bylsma and Housley were more or less forced to play him 24 minutes per game.
He was over used, played for a very bad team that lacked on ice leadership, offered zero accountability and was expected to learn how to play defense with out proper coaching.
He is only 24 years old and already has 4 forty point seasons.
He plays too many minutes, has too many DZ starts, plays against the other teams top lines and it appears he was put into a position to fail.
I think he has flaws, but IMO he will learn how to play defense. I seem to remember similar comments were directed to Karlsson and Weber early in their careers.
I hope he is not traded, with proper coaching he will score more, give up fewer goals, and be a much more valuable contributor.


You will be shocked at the return, Lebrun, who is an excellent analyst, thought Tampa would need to give up Sergachev if they wanted Ristolainen. Considering how Columbus was able to push around the Bolts, maybe BriseBois should have given up more to obtain him.

He may be over paid, but let's see how he does with better coaching.

During last year off season that made more sense, when Nugent-Hopkin only had 125 pts over the previous 3 seasons (Ristolainen had 127 over the same seasons).

Let me close, Anaheim is absolutely the wrong team to target if I were a Sabre GM.
Ristolainen has been misused, overused, wrongly used for 4 seasons.
He is only 24 years old, because he has developed bad habits, it will take longer to retrain him.
I hope he is not traded, Miller, Montour and Ristolainen as RHD is awesome. I do not know why so many Sabre fans want to dump defensemen when it is the first time in years since the team has had decent defensemen.