Let’s hope nobody has a down year
It’s never easy looking at a team and saying that a player will have a down year. So finding potential disappointments is just as difficult as finding potential breakouts.
Tuukka Rask is coming off a career-worst season when playing in 20 or more games. Not to mention, he is 32 years old, making it less likely for a bounce back. It’s also a difficult pill to swallow for a team to go the distance in the playoffs and come up just short. That let down on a goalie has the potential to be catastrophic on his career.
While Rask has been in this situation before, having lost in the cup finals in 2013, he is 6 years separated from that experience. It’s also important to note that the Bruins failed to qualify for the playoffs in 2015-16 and 2016-17, although not to the fault of Rask.
I believe that Rask will continue to decline with age, although not enough to sink the team out of a potential playoff spot. Now, this isn’t a popular opinion by any means, especially after how well Rask played throughout the postseason, but he has the highest potential on the roster for a disappointing season.
Another option here would be Zdeno Chara. I get it, he is a staple to the Bruins defence core and took a fairly big pay cut for this season to stick around. But he is old and most definitely at the tail end of his career. However, it’s kind of expected at this point for Chara to fall behind in games, with the youth movement and the way the game has evolved. That’s why he was not the top choice for potential disappointment for next season.