The Flyers makeover, whether you want to call it a rebuild or a re-tool, began Thursday, and it happened by locking up one of their own, long-term.

According to multiple sources, Crossing Broad has learned that the Flyers have signed defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen to a 5-year, $25.5 million dollar extension. His cap hit will be $5.1 million each season.

There was a question as to whether or not the Flyers would be able to re-sign Ristolainen, or whether he was going to want to hit free agency, thus forcing a deadline trade to recoup some value.

Instead, Ristolainen, 27, agreed to the extension to stay with the Flyers and be part of their franchise moving forward.

This has to come as a relief to GM Chuck Fletcher, who traded a 1st and a 2nd round pick as well as Robert Hagg to get Ristolainen last summer, an asset haul he wouldn’t have been able to recover if he had to trade Ristolainen as a rental.

Ristolainen has two goals and nine assists for 11 points in 49 games for the Flyers this season, but more importantly he has been a physical presence in the defensive zone that the franchise hasn’t had in more than a decade. And, his ability to kill opposing teams’ chances and opportunities to score has been highly valued by the organization.

His public analytics numbers aren’t great, but they also don’t tell the whole story, or explain his actual value to the team.

The Flyers now have a lot of money locked up on defense between Ivan Provorov ($6.75 million AAV for three more years), Ryan Ellis ($6.25 million, five more years) and Travis Sanheim ($4.675 million AAV for one more season).

As such, the Flyers could be looking to move Sanheim, either at the deadline, or in the offseason, as they try to create a spot in the top four for top prospect Cam York, who was recalled on Wednesday:

Talk about a player with value for the Flyers, especially at the deadline since you aren’t just trading for Sanheim now (and he’s been the Flyers’ best defenseman this season), but you have him for next season as well.

Things are definitely going to be interesting around the Flyers over the next 11 days.

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