The prediction at the time of Tuukka Rask’s mammoth contract extension was that eventually the deal would become more of a value contract for the Bruins.
It looks as if that time is arriving for both the B’s No. 1 goaltender and for the Black and Gold on the heels of an eight-year, $76 million contract extension between the Tampa Bay Lightning and goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. The Vasilevskiy deal will pay him an average annual value of $9.5 million per season while making him the third-highest paid goalie in NHL history behind just Montreal Canadiens netminder Carey Price and new Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.
The interesting thing about all three goalies, Price, Bobrovsky and Vasilevskiy, is that none of them have won a Stanley Cup to this point in their careers.
Then again neither has Rask as a No. 1 goalie for the Bruins.
Now Rask is tied for sixth in the NHL with Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury when it comes to goaltenders in the league’s highest tax bracket, and the $7 million annual salary is looking more appropriate when it comes to performance and payment. Some of that is because is coming off a solid regular season where he went 27-13-5 with a 2.48 goals against average and a .912 save percentage before really turning it on with a .934 save percentage during Boston’s run to the Cup Final.
Rask once again came up one game short along with the rest of his teammates, of course, when they dropped Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final against the St. Louis Blues, but he lived up to the contract he’s being paid when he looked at his performance regular season and postseason. Some of the questions about Rask’s current contract are more about the need for an established backup goaltender like Jaroslav Halak, as there are only a couple of NHL teams that shell out more than the $9.75 million do for the services of both Rask and Halak.
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But the Bruins got what they paid for last season when Rask and Halak finished tied for third in the NHL in goals against average (2.59) and seventh in save percentage (.912), and gave Boston one of the best goalie duos in the entire league. That will be even truer next season as the Lightning and Panthers both spent mega-bucks on goalies this offseason to dwarf the contract signed by Rask back in 2013 off the heels of his Stanley Cup Final run against the Chicago Blackhawks.
The bigger concern, or question, for the Bruins is what will happen with Rask following this upcoming season as the Finnish goalie would be entering the final year of his deal in 2020-21, and stands to get a raise based on the bucks being shelled out to peers like Bob and Vasilevskiy.
Is it okay to say that Rask is a bargain at this point? Maybe and maybe not. But it’s also clearly not a situation where Rask can be called overpaid anymore based on other non-Cup winning goaltenders that have cashed in on deals bigger than Boston’s franchise guy.
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