It’s officially official – Tuukka Rask is once again a member of the Boston Bruins.
Th 34-year-old goaltender signed a one-year, $1 million deal with the Bruins for the rest of this season.
He's baaaacccckkkk...#NHLBruins sign Tuukka Rask to one-year contract: https://t.co/vQ5KwURVDB
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) January 11, 2022
"I think the biggest motivation is to play with the group that I’ve played with my whole career and have another chance to win." -- @tuukkarask on returning to the #NHLBruins on a one-year deal pic.twitter.com/ThRD0V3gnk
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) January 12, 2022
The former Bruin was rehabbing from labrum surgery he had this offseason and went unsigned in the summer when he became a free agent.
Rask was initially signed to a PTO with the Providence Bruins was going to play a couple of games with them before joining the team in Boston. However, with two of this past weekend’s games getting canceled for Providence, he was released from his PTO and will join the Bruins ahead of their Wednesday matchup with the Montreal Canadiens.
Rask was a man of his word when it came to returning to the Bruins
When last season ended the topic of Rask’s future with the team came up, it became clear that he was going to go unsigned, see how surgery went and how we felt afterwards and then make a decision on whether to come back or not.
But he had one consistent theme in all of his conversation – he didn’t want to go anywhere else besides Boston. This is what he said back in August on WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show:
"“I played with one team when I was in Finland I have been so lucky to be part of only one team in the NHL. For me, it’s about that pride of playing for one team and one team only. I have no reason to chase the money anymore and go somewhere else. It’s going to be one of those things where the Bruins are my home, Boston is my home. I’ve always wanted to play here, wanted to stay here. So the money won’t be an issue. We had a conversation with (Bruins general manager Don Sweeney) Sweens and I will be a cheap goalie for them, I think.”"
A cheap goalie he is indeed. He even had jokingly previously claimed he would play for $250,000 and a lot of Bud Light. The brewing company cracked a joke with Rask yesterday on Twitter.
Holding up our end of the deal. You in @TuukkaRask? https://t.co/LjuM4J23kt pic.twitter.com/0nkDTJ0xok
— Bud Light (@budlight) January 11, 2022
Ultimately, Rask is back and despite how well Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman have been playing, there’s no denying the talented goaltender Rask is. He won’t solve all of this teams issue, but he’ll sure help them out.
Welcome back Tuukka.