At 6-foot-4 and 219 pounds, 19-year-old Buffalo Sabres prospect Rasmus Ristolainen isn’t your normal junior-age player.
Prior to the Sabres selecting him eighth overall in June, Ristolainen played two seasons in SM-liiga, a men’s league in his native Finland. Then the defenseman cracked the Sabres’ opening-night lineup this season, playing 19 NHL games before getting sent to Rochester in November.
In the preseason, before Ristolainen’s birthday, Sabres defenseman Mike Weber called him “an 18-year-old man.”
Not surprisingly, Ristolainen starred for Finland’s world junior championship team. Fittingly, he scored a nifty overtime winner in today’s 3-2 gold medal win against Sweden.
Watch it below.
