Tracking Rasmus Ristolainen's Steady Improvement
How Did Rasmus Ristolainen Go From Analytics Punchline To Solid Defender?
The 2023-24 NHL season is nearly upon us!
Looking back to the 2022-23 season, I want to talk about one of my favorite stories, the development and improvement of 28-year-old defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen (#55 in the below videos). His journey is a great lesson in how to improve as a defenseman.
Background
Drafted 8th overall in 2013, Ristolainen was a big, smooth-skating defenseman who could do a little of everything well. He even scored the game-winning goal in the 2014 World Junior Championship with a really slick finish.
Ristolainen quickly became an NHL player who was known for playing big minutes in Buffalo. The Philadelphia Flyers valued his “hard to play against” style and traded a 1st & 2nd round pick and a solid prospect to acquire him. A year later, they signed Ristolainen to a four-year contract at $5.1m/year.
Yet, Ristolainen has been an “advanced analytics” donkey with terrible underlying numbers. His traditional stats… hits, blocked shots, and points have always been strong, but Ristolainen wasn’t doing the right things on the ice to actually drive play his team’s way. From the 2021-22 season:
Put simply, the picture that analytics painted of Ristolainen was that he was a terrible player who was overused and overpaid.
That was, until the 2022-23 season. He genuinely improved in both the eye test and underlying analytics.
“He’s our most improved player,” said Philadephia Flyers head coach John Tortorella.
This really is a tale of two stories in one season:
“Yeah, it’s kind of almost like two seasons in one. First half (I) was pretty bad, but then probably around after the Christmas break, I started to get going and the second half was much better.” - Ristolainen
Story #1 - Terrible Beginnings
Ristolainen missed the season’s first six games due to a prior injury then played in the next four. He was then made a healthy scratch.
“I don’t think he’s played well enough. Everything about his game, I think he needs to be better. That’s the easiest way of me explaining it,” said Tortorella.
Eye Test/Video:
A tweet from JFresh showed a particularly poor night for the defenseman. Link to video.
Statistics
His early 2022-23 season was really bad. and we can see both his defense and offense were terrible.
But the coaching staff didn’t give up on him. They saw he could be an effective NHLer and worked with him to improve his on-ice performance.
Improvement Process: Coaching and A Willingness to Being Coached
Using video clips and blunt conversations, the coaching staff of John Tortorella and Brad Shaw (responsible for their defensemen) worked with Ristolainen. All three have mentioned that the staff was tough on him behind closed doors. Ristolainen found out that was the best coaching style for him.
“It’s pretty simple and clear, and he’s honest. I think the way he is and the way he coaches, he probably gets the most out of me. That’s what I appreciate — the honesty good or bad. Sometimes, I need a little push, a kick in the ass.” - Ristolainen on his relationship with Tortorella
What specific piece of Ristolainen’s game did they start on? Getting defensive stops. As the saying goes, “Offense is about movement. Defense is about stopping movement.”
Ristolainen is a physical presence on the ice. Traditionally he would hit to separate heads from bodies and often going out of his way to hit a player. Like we discussed with Emil Andrae, this is an area for improvement. His physicality is a an asset so it’s not something to discourage altogether, but rather more intelligently deploy physicality in a more controlled manner.
“Biggest thing is I don’t want him just looking for the big hits. I think if you start looking for the big hits as a defensemen, you end up on the outside. That’s when people start coming through you.
I want the physicality, but I also want some patience and positioning in his game.” - Tortorella on October 25th
After practice on October 26, 2023:
“I just try to play smart and kill plays and try to get the puck more than go through the guy.” - Ristolainen said.
Once Ristolainen showed improvement with the basics, he moved on to find situations where could stop/kill plays quicker
“I feel like I killed some plays and probably there are some plays I probably should’ve killed quicker”, Ristolainen said later in November.
Another detail they worked on was positioning and having a better stick.
Story #2 - Development & Improvements
As you’d expect by focusing on defense first, Ristolainen wasn’t scoring points at first. He had just two points in 30 games (as of December 31, 2022). Ristolainen had often been a ~40-point player who was on the power play. The Flyers coaching staff took him off the power play and avoided rushing his development and asking too much at once.
“Right now, I’m just concerned with him continuing to grow from where he is defensively. The offense that comes off of that, to me, that’s a bonus.” - Tortorella
Step 1 = Improving Defensively
Ristolainen was no longer running around the defensive zone chasing down opponents to sell out for big hits. Ristolainen was defending skating forward, prioritizing positioning, and using his stick to break up plays.
Don’t kid yourself, he still had the big hit in his arsenal. This is a great example of him defending the line and killing a play early:
Step 2 = Improving Offensively
Once 2023 rolled around, Ristolainen developed confidence in himself and in his coaching staff. He began to show off the offensive player that we saw during his pre-NHL years. Ristolainen ended up scoring 18 points in the final 44 games to finish the season.
A solid defensive block on the penalty kill, but that wasn’t enough. He ended up joining the rush and scoring a beautiful goal.
In the offensive zone, he was part of the offensive rotations and getting off the blueline.
Season Recap
His numbers got much better. Analytics folks noticed this as well.
Ristolainen’s improvements saw him growing in his role from the third pair up to the top pair.
“As hard as I was on Risto early in the year, he’s our most improved player. I think he deserves to be put in other situations. So he takes minutes from other people.” - Tortorella
When reflecting on his season, Ristolainen did really well to summarize his season.
“Start with simple things. Start to snowball”
“You have to find your spots. But obviously when you feel good about your game and your confidence is high, you can try some things or jump up”
Ristolainen truly showed improvement both during the eye test and in his advanced analytics. He ended up having his best ever defensive season which led to his best ever overall impact.
Takeaways
Development is a process. Focus on one area or item at a time and focus on that obsessively.
Don’t be afraid to give and receive difficult messages. Have those conversations.
Defense is about stopping movement. Having good positioning, using skills, and using good stick detail.
Be a part of the rush as a defenseman. It creates offense and sets great gap for defense off turnovers.
Note: While we’ve been tracking Risolainen’s improvement in real time, massive stick taps to Charlie O’Connor’s fantastic piece on The Athletic, which made our life writing this much, much easier.
Further Reading
Modern Hockey: Offensive Rush Tactics with Defenseman Roman Josi
Zach Werenski lead the NHL in goals as a defender, how’d he do it?
Using passing progression to speed up effective decision making