It was a good news, bad news scenario for the Boston Bruins and Tuukka Rask this week.
The good: Rask agreed to a professional tryout agreement with the Providence Bruins to play a conditioning stint in the AHL. A precursor to signing an extension with the NHL club, rumors of Boston’s all-time games and wins leader between the pipes returning to the fold had been bubbling near the surface since late summer, but now it looks to be all but a formality.
Unfortunately for Providence, their weekend schedule of home games against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms was wiped out and postponed due to a COVID outbreak for the Philadelphia Flyers’ farm team. With many eager to see Rask wearing the Spoked-P again for the first time since 2009, they will have to wait a little longer, and he might end up skipping the minor league tune-up altogether.
Yet, the fact that Rask has the green light to return to game action could mean all systems go for his imminent return to the NHL roster, where he will be looking to add to his 560 career games and 306 victories, all with the Bruins.
Why signing Rask makes sense
There are those who will say that goaltending is the least of Boston’s problems right now. They may well assert that between Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman, the duo accounts for less than $6 million per year on Boston’s salary cap figure (Rask’s last contract accounted for a $7 million cap hit each season since 2013), there are better ways to spend Boston’s available $3.6 million in change. Both points might be true. They are also irrelevant.
Teams will always go with the player(s) they feel give them the best chance to win. Even at age 34, and with a surgically repaired hip that has yet to be tested, on paper, Rask is better than Ullmark and Swayman.
“I feel great,” Rask said after his AHL PTO was announced. “The biggest issue for me was the catching of the joint and the pain that it created and all of that is gone. It makes a huge difference because every time I go to butterfly (and) get up, I don’t have to think about it locking up on me again and creating that pain, so I feel great.”
Rask said that the injury, which hampered him for much of the 2020-21 season, didn’t really impact his daily off-ice movements. The impacts and stress he placed on his hips and joints with the rapid down-up and lateral movements are what created a lot of pain and discomfort during games and practices, making surgery a necessity if he was going to continue his playing career.
Now healthy, he enters the mix for Boston at a critical time, as the team has a heavy schedule of games. A light early-season load of games due to schedule makers’ discretion, followed by the recent COVID-induced hiatus, means that the B’s will play a lot more than many other teams the rest of the way. Having a rested and hungry Rask should pay dividends for the Bruins, assuming all goes well with his stint in Providence and he signs the expected deal with Boston after that.
However, Boston head coach Bruce Cassidy might have thrown cold water on that assumption in comments he made before the team’s Saturday 5-2 road win in Tampa.
“He’s practicing, and we’ll try to get him in some game action when we can,” said Cassidy. “He might have to start playing here and miss some assignments in Providence.”
While conditioning stints for players coming off of extended time missed due to injuries is a pretty standard affair, it’s not required. If the team’s medical staff and hockey operations brain trust feels he’s ready, then all that remains is the formality of signing him to his new NHL contract and getting on with it.
Why it makes sense for the Bruins is simple: Rask was still in top form a year ago, while playing through significant pain. Although he’s a year older, there isn’t likely to be much of a drop off in his play. With his ability and experience, he will make the goaltending position even stronger for Boston.
While Rask has been a polarizing figure in the Bruins nets since he succeeded Tim Thomas as the club’s No. 1 in 2012, he’s won a Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goalie, and along with Jaroslav Halak, captured the William Jennings Trophy with the fewest goals allowed in 2019. Rask, a former 1st-round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2005, never played a game for them. He’s spent his entire career in Boston since being acquired at the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, and being healthy and fresh will set him up to build on recent successes.
Signing Rask likely means that the waivers-exempt Swayman would go down to Providence to get needed playing time, with the veteran Ullmark forming the other half of an impressive duo. Cassidy did not rule out carrying three goalies for the time being, however.
The downside of bringing Rask back
Is there really a downside to this?
Aside from the uncertainty of how Rask’s hip will react to the stresses and pressures of practices and games, there isn’t a lot of risk for Boston. The biggest challenge will be for Rask to knock off the rust from not having played since June when the NY Islanders eliminated the B’s from the 2021 playoffs in their second-round series.
He may need several games to work himself back into form and fully trust the repaired hip, but he’s ahead of the timeline. After a gradual process of rehabilitation, with the team under pressure to get him back into the lineup, has meant extended practices and a chance to build up his physical and mental confidence.
When it comes to hips and goaltenders, there is a tremendous amount of stress and strain that playing the position demands on that part of the body. It may take a little time for Rask to get there, but once he does, he makes the B’s a better team in net than they are currently.
Final analysis
Look for a deal that will pay Rask somewhere in the ballpark of $2.5 to $3 million per season (UPDATE: Rumor via PuckPedia on Twitter has it that the contract will pay Rask $1 million for 2021-22, with $545,000 earned on a pro-rated basis) on a one-year extension. That gives the B’s flexibility to bank some space if Swayman goes down while giving them about $1.5 or $2 million to play with as the calendar marches toward the NHL’s trade deadline on Feb.
Rask makes the Bruins better. He won’t be able to log defensive minutes playing next to Charlie McAvoy or provide second-line center scoring support up the middle, but he and Ullmark give the Bruins a quality duo in net, with Rask’s playoff experience something that neither Ullmark nor Swayman have much of.
In the end, that was the tipping point.
B’s-Lightning scout's notebook
The Bruins raced out to a 4-0 lead (16 shots) on the defending Stanley Cup champs and Conn Smythe trophy winner Andrei Vasilevskiy. David Pastrnak got the first two, followed by Brad Marchand on a textbook net drive and tip of a low point shot by Mike Reilly. Anton Blidh then beat the all-world goalie short side on a quick shot that was set up by rookie Oskar Steen, who used an aggressive stick and his feet to take control of the puck inside the Tampa zone and set up Blidh for a career-best second goal of the season. It was Steen’s fifth point in seven games this season.
https://twitter.com/NHLBruins/status/1479991358576381958?s=20
Ullmark played a strong game in net, making 27 stops to raise his record to 10-5. He was very good in the first two periods, especially in helping the Bruins kill off an extended 5-on-3 in the second frame. With all of the news surrounding Rask, Ullmark made a statement in this game, and has been much better since the B’s returned to play this month after their December layoff.
Defenseman Urho Vaakanainen played in his first regular season game of 2021-22 in place of McAvoy, out for a second straight game with a minor injury. A left-shot playing the right side, the big Finn and 2017 first-round selection showed solid poise, mobility and awareness. Like Jakub Zboril earlier this season, if Vaakanainen could somehow find a way to make an impact with the NHL club this season, it would go a long way after the B’s passed on drafting center Robert Thomas that year.
Vaakanainen is a rangy skater with long reach and the ability to keep opponents to the outside with his quick feet and active stick. He doesn't have much in the way of an offensive dimension, but could be a capable third-pairing defense-first type in time.
