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Rasmus Ristolainen open to being traded.
Nicholas T. Loverde/CSM/Zuma 

Rasmus Ristolainen open to being traded.

Who can blame him.

HockeyFeed

HockeyFeed

The Buffalo Sabres have wrapped up what can only be described as yet another extremely disappointing season and several of their players are currently going through their exit interviews, players including veteran defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen.

On Monday Ristolainen was one of the Sabres who went through his own exit interview and he spoke to members of the assembled media after his conversation with Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams, offering some candid answers about the conversations he had with his GM. When he was asked about how the conversation went, Ristolainen not so subtly indicated that he had told Adams that he would be open to the possibility of being traded by the Sabres during the offseason.

"I'm open for all the ideas," said Ristolainen on Monday. "Right now, it's hard. Obviously, the season just ended so, yeah, I'm frustrated and I'm pissed and it sucks. So I told him I'm open for all the scenarios: staying or if he trades me, I'm fine with that, too."

Although I'm sure fans in Buffalo are not thrilled to hear that yet another player on their squad would welcome the idea of a trade, you can hardly blame Ristolainen for wanting out of Buffalo at this stage of his career. The former first round pick (8th overall) at the 2013 NHL Entry Draft has spent his entire NHL career so far as a member of the Buffalo Sabres and as a result has spent his entire career losing in the NHL. Ristolainen has just completed his 8th season in the league but in spite of his relatively long tenure at this point he has never even had so much as a chance to participate in the Stanley Cup playoffs, failing to qualify for the playoffs with the Sabres in all 8 of those seasons.

That is a heavy burden for a player that has nearly 550 NHL games under his belt, especially one that was such a highly touted prospect coming into that draft in 2013. Whether or not the Sabres will move him in the offseason, an offseason where every team in the league will once again be dealing with a flat salary cap, remains to be seen however.