How good is Rasmus Ristolainen?

[Sharppi]

 

[MattMartin]

Ekblad will have a run for his money when all is said and done. Right now Ekblad>>Risto. In two years I can see Risto>Ekblad.

 

[Alexandrov]

WARRIOR charts are actually quite useful. They quickly expose the posters who don't bother watching hockey and/or know very little about statistics

 

[CanadienShark]

Yeah no hes not close

Ok #4 right now. #2 upside


Numbers arent much better for his "break out" year of 2015-16. Of his top linemates. 8/10 top linemates do better without him than with him. Below is his raw #s. The more positive numbers and the higher they are, the worse. These represent teammates improvement in possession #s without him. Some shockingly bad numbers.

3.4
6.1
3.8
5.8
2
4.8
2.6
4.2
-0.2
-2.7
1.6
8.1
3.6
5.4
5.7
-9.3
2.3
5.2
27.1
14.4
7.8
16.5
15.6
-0.9
24.7
25.6
5.5

The chart you've posted has Zadorov as his second most common partner. How are past years relevant when considering how he's developed?

 

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Ekblad plays on a good team. That affects.

 

[JFG]

Ekblad plays on a good team. That affects.

I don't know were you are getting at? Ristolainen is not better than Ekblad now nor is he a better 'prospect'.

 

[Dogewow]

I don't know were you are getting at? Ristolainen is not better than Ekblad now nor is he a better 'prospect'.

Neither are prospects at this point. All he's saying is that you can't ignore how a player is effected by who he's playing with. At this point Ekblad is getting much more support than Risto is. Though I would still argue Ekblad has the slight edge over Risto.

 

[Nordic*]

Some games he's looked fantastic, others really underwhelming.

But that is part of maturing as a player, most young players struggle with consistency issues.

As a Swede I hope he never gets better!

But as a realist and hockey lover, I believe he'll turn into a top-15 D-man in the future.

 

[JFG]

Neither are prospects at this point. All he's saying is that you can't ignore how a player is effected by who he's playing with. At this point Ekblad is getting much more support than Risto is. Though I would still argue Ekblad has the slight edge over Risto.

That's why I used ' '. I meant Ekblad is better now and his potential is higher. For me the edge is not exactly 'slight' though.

 

[Radomon]

The next Aki Berg.

 

[Sam Spade]

Every Sabre game I watch he stands out in a good way. He is a 1A or 1B easily in the next year or two.

 

[Cootsfanclub]

I don't know were you are getting at? Ristolainen is not better than Ekblad now nor is he a better 'prospect'.

Ristolainen has easily been the better player of the last season and a half. Ekblad has the higher potential, but Ristolainen has been the better player.

Ekblad is being developed like a defenseman should be, easy minutes in his first few seasons and gradually getting tougher roles. Ristolainen was thrown to the wolves and has, so far, played better. Ekblad doesn't get the ES or PK ice time Risto gets. The ES time he does get start in the Ozone nearly 60% of the time. He doesn't get tough competition. He is sheltered. That's absolutely fine though, again, that's how defenseman should be developed.

 

[La Cosa Nostra]

If anyone wants to continue to post those god awful hero charts to prove they know nothing about hockey go right ahead. Hero charts are ****ing G A R B A G E.

 

[BusQuets]

As someone who watches his fair share of Florida's game i think Ristolainen has been better this season than Ekblad. Ekblad hasn't been as good as he was last season and Risto has been pretty darn good this season.

 

[pigpen65]

Advanced stats are for people who don't watch players but want to talk about them like they do. Watch him play. He's good. If his advanced stats are bad it's probably because he's been infected with Gorges all year who is absolutely terrible.

 

[Curufinwe]

Put Ristolainen on a better team and the numbers he's been damned with by some people here would shoot right up.

 

[Hokinaittii]

The next Aki Berg.

It was the moment RR scored his 40th point this season when it struck me, we might have a new poor man's Aki Berg in our hands.

 

[tony d]

He needs improvement but I think he's going to have a very good career.

 

[internet toughguy]

If anyone wants to continue to post those god awful hero charts to prove they know nothing about hockey go right ahead. Hero charts are ****ing G A R B A G E.

But...but I like the pretty colors!

 

[Cyborg LeClair]

He's pretty good. Getting better too. Better than Nurse by a lot

 

[Heraldic]

Yeah no hes not close

Ok #4 right now. #2 upside


Numbers arent much better for his "break out" year of 2015-16. Of his top linemates. 8/10 top linemates do better without him than with him. Below is his raw #s. The more positive numbers and the higher they are, the worse. These represent teammates improvement in possession #s without him. Some shockingly bad numbers.

3.4
6.1
3.8
5.8
2
4.8
2.6
4.2
-0.2
-2.7
1.6
8.1
3.6
5.4
5.7
-9.3
2.3
5.2
27.1
14.4
7.8
16.5
15.6
-0.9
24.7
25.6
5.5

These "warrior" or "hero" columns are extremely useful for discussion board purposes.

I mean, every time someone throws one of those without even indicating that the lack of context (team/partner/role/usage) might be a problem, you know that there is something very wrong in the posts offered.

 

[Sabresruletheschool]

He makes some own zone mistakes, but he's 21. If you judge him for what he is, a 21 year old playing 1D, tons of minutes in every situation, alot of Defensive zone starts on a team still rebuilding with Georges as a D partner. If you look at all that, he's a pretty damn good D man.

 

[Dubi Doo]

I don't think there's a defenseman in the league that was drafted in his draft year or later that was playing as good as he was the first half of this season and the last quarter of this past season. His good game are farer and fewer between since around Feb, but he was lights out earlier in the year. Risto just needs to be more consistent and become accustom to the grind of a true #1 defenseman. Time will tell if he's able to do this, but he's shown that he's capable of it for an extended period of time.

 

[Aceboogie]

The chart you've posted has Zadorov as his second most common partner. How are past years relevant when considering how he's developed?

I also posted his current year WOWY numbers. Here a current year chart. This is from a little bit ago and offensive numbers have declined (defensive metrics stayed the same). These are his numbers in a "break out" year

 

[Aceboogie]

These "warrior" or "hero" columns are extremely useful for discussion board purposes.

I mean, every time someone throws one of those without even indicating that the lack of context (team/partner/role/usage) might be a problem, you know that there is something very wrong in the posts offered.

I have noted very numerous times about context. But context doesn't absolve him of poor numbers entirely. Is this what HF is devolving into? Every time someone has bad underlying numbers fans will just scream out CONTEXT! and move on. No it doesnt work that way

ROR and Gorges have easier zone and competition usage away from Risto which make the numbers away from Ristolainen look nicer. That's where you find the discrepancy.

They dont tho. Gorges plays tougher minutes than RR. Its more likely the case RR plays easier minutes away from Gorges

I haven't seen many better/more promising d-men in the league at the age of 20 than Ristolainen.

This is very correct, he is very promising. But a long ways to go

People incorrectly use analytics and advanced stats on a daily basis here on hf. One glaring example is how people ignore the time frame on warrior stats used in this very thread.

Ive provided current year numbers (WOWY), current year warrior chart, current year corsi numbers, They all suck

I get why people think that. They look bad. I don't think people realize how much of a negative Josh Gorges (especially on a top pairing) is in terms of possession stats though. He's a really, really big negative.

Hes not tho, his numbers actually improve away from RR, and he plays tougher comp