Rasmus Ristolainen, what should we expect this season?

[LGR4GM]

As I was reading up on draft prospect Urho Vaakanainen, they noted that Rasmus Ristolainen had the most ppg as a 16/17yr old in the LIIGA since 2001 before Urho. That got me thinking...

 

We all know his offensive upside. He QB's the PP like a BA (bad ass). We also are aware that his advanced stats are questionable. His even strength (ES) corsi% sits at 44.1% which isn't great at all. Occasionally he does dumb things in the defensive zone. Occasionally he does brilliant things in the defensive zone. He is turning 23 and entering season #5. Granted his 1st two seasons were on complete garbage teams but he still is rapidly reaching his potential. 

 

So the question is where does that see him this season? Does a new coach and new defense corp help to keep Risto from being a corpse by January as he suffers through punishing TOI numbers? Will his defensive game improve more than I think it did this past season? Will he stop being forced to carry around the dead husk of Josh Gorges who should be on the 3rd pairing? Does he go to the All Star game?

 

What say you Sabrespace? 

[LikeEich]

As I was reading up on draft prospect Urho Vaakanainen, they noted that Rasmus Ristolainen had the most ppg as a 16/17yr old in the LIIGA since 2001 before Urho. That got me thinking...

 

We all know his offensive upside. He QB's the PP like a BA (bad ass). We also are aware that his advanced stats are questionable. His even strength (ES) corsi% sits at 44.1% which isn't great at all. Occasionally he does dumb things in the defensive zone. Occasionally he does brilliant things in the defensive zone. He is turning 23 and entering season #5. Granted his 1st two seasons were on complete garbage teams but he still is rapidly reaching his potential.

 

So the question is where does that see him this season? Does a new coach and new defense corp help to keep Risto from being a corpse by January as he suffers through punishing TOI numbers? Will his defensive game improve more than I think it did this past season? Will he stop being forced to carry around the dead husk of Josh Gorges who should be on the 3rd pairing? Does he go to the All Star game?

 

What say you Sabrespace?

Optimistically anticipating a deeper blue line so that should mean his minutes coming back to earth. Ideally I'd like to see him in the lower 20's.

 

Look for him to break 50pts and 10+ goals this season, hopefully increase possession and even strength scoring. Risto is best in meaningful games so let's hope we play some of those. He Has the potential to be 4th-10th in point as early as this season.

 

Defensively I think it's going to be another 2-3 seasons before he's at his best. However I expect too continue to see steady improvement each year.

[3putt]

Norris.

[thewookie1]

Slightly better D, and a few more points while averaging 24/25 minutes a game.

[darksabre]

I need him jumping into the play on offense a lot more. He has so much more to offer there.

[TrueBlueGED]

I need him jumping into the play on offense a lot more. He has so much more to offer there.

 

Absolutely. We have to stop pretending he's some shutdown guy. Maybe he'll get there, but he's not there right now.

[qwksndmonster]

I need him jumping into the play on offense a lot more. He has so much more to offer there.

It hurt to see the way he was coached under Bylsma. Despite how slick his hands are, he would always just dump it in as soon as he got it to the center line. Part of that was that he had no energy left after bailing out Gorges from getting slaughtered by other team's top lines. Once we have the D men/coach to facilitate it, I wanna see Risto carrying the puck himself. He's gotta have a coach that trusts him and pushes him to be more aggressive with the puck.