Tuukka Rask inks bargain deal as Bruins' all-time winningest goalie returns to Boston’s net

He’s back. 

(Well - officially, now.)

After declaring back in the summer that he was willing to return to the Bruins on a “cheap” contract, it looks like Tuukka Rask is a man of his word. 

Less than a week after inking a PTO contract with Providence, Rask and the Bruins finally crossed the t’s and dotted the i’s on a one-year contract on Tuesday with an annual cap hit of just $1 million. According to PuckPedia, the true value of Rask’s deal will be prorated at an actual salary of $545,000. 

(It’s unclear if any crates of Bud Light were used as a sweetener in any contract negotiations.)

As we’ve noted countless times before, Tuesday’s news shouldn’t necessarily come as a surprise — considering Rask’s return has seemed all but inevitable for months now. 

Even before the 34-year-old netminder began joining the B’s for full team practices at Warrior Ice Arena, the comments shared by Bruce Cassidy and Don Sweeney in the early months of the 2021-22 campaign seemed to indicate that Rask rejoining Boston was always in the plan, so long as his rehab progress from offseason hip surgery went smoothly. 

While it’s still to be determined what the next steps are for Rask in terms of shaking off some rust and getting back into game action — it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if the club’s all-time winningest netminder gets the nod in one of Boston’s next two games against the Canadiens (Wednesday) or Flyers (Thursday). 

Of course, the original plan was for Rask to get back up to speed during his PTO stint with the Baby B’s — but that conditioning framework fell through when Providence’s foe in Lehigh Valley couldn’t play last week due to COVID issues. 

Rather than wait for Providence to resume play later this week, it looks as though the Bruins are ready to throw Rask right into the fire against NHL competition. 

All things considered, getting the nod against the Habs might be the best option for all parties — considering the 7-23-4 Canadiens might be the perfect tomato-can foe to ingratiate Rask to NHL competition once more. 

Rask’s return should give an already surging B’s team another shot in the arm, especially now that the netminder is finally pain-free after dealing with a nagging ailment for most of the 2020-21 campaign. 

“I feel great,” Rask said last week. “The biggest issue for me was the catching of the joint and the pain that that created. So that all is gone and 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.”

But beyond waiting to see when exactly Rask will draw back into the lineup, the real domino that’s yet to fall is what exactly the Bruins plan on doing with their goalie rotation moving forward.

As we discussed last week, there’s not entirely a clear-cut answer — even though the most likely scenario involves Jeremy Swayman getting some reps down in Providence and Rask and Linus Ullmark (6-1-0, .923 save percentage in his last seven games) earning the lion’s share of reps up in the NHL.

But that doesn’t mean that Swayman’s time up in Boston is now over and done with — at least for the remainder of this year. 

From last week’s column: 

As complicated as it might seem, it’s not entirely out of the question that the Bruins rely on all three netminders over a hectic sprint to the end of the regular season — especially given the pure quantity of games on the docket.   

Add in the potential for Rask needing time to ease back into his regular workload and Ullmark’s injury history during his tenure in Buffalo — and it’s safe to assume that even if Swayman earns a stint or two down in Providence, it doesn’t mean he’ll be banished to the farm for the remainder of the 2021-22 campaign. 

Is the Bruins’ netminding the most evident Achilles’ heel on this roster? Certainly not. 

But when a player of Rask’s caliber — especially now with a clean bill of health — is available and willing to sign for pennies on the dollar, you ink that contract without hesitation. 

The Bruins still have a few more shoes that need to drop in order to really elevate themselves into the upper tier of contenders in the NHL. 

But when it comes to their situation in net, it's a good problem for the Bruins to have when it comes to Ullmark, Swayman and now, a healthy and motivated Rask.