Former Cup winning goalie on the trading block for the first time during his NHL career.

One of the NHL's biggest names on the block.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 6 years ago
Former Cup winning goalie on the trading block for the first time during his NHL career.
Keystone Press

For the first time since he first stepped out onto the ice as a goaltender in the National Hockey League, there are credible names openly discussing the possibility of trading former Stanley Cup Champion goaltender Tuukka Rask.

While yes technically Rask was traded once before by the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team that drafted him, that was prior to him ever playing in an NHL regular season game, and was in a deal that the Toronto Maple Leafs have been trying to forget ever since. 

Now however Rask is one of the most recognized names when it comes to goalies in the NHL, and to hear someone like Boston Bruins Joe Haggerty seriously mention the possibility of the Bruins moving Rask comes as a huge surprise.

From Haggerty:

In short, Rask is being paid as a $7 million-a-year franchise goalie, but he's not playing like one. And there's four years beyond this left on the contract.

The Bruins will have to play him and pump up his value if they any hopes of trading him in the future.

Rask's performance has been on a steady decline over the past three seasons with the Bruins, and that decline has hit an all time low this season with Rask recording a 2.89 goals against average and save percentage of 0.897 over 12 games this season. 

Complicating the situation is the fact that veteran backup goaltender Anton Khudobin is having a career season recording a 2.13 goals against average and a 0.938 save percentage, including stealing another win for the Bruins on Wednesday night. 

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While Haggerty does not believe that Khudobin's current hot streak can be a long-term solution for the Bruins in goal, it's clear he also doesn't believe the team can win with Rask as a number goaltender anymore either. Again from Haggerty:

One season could be an outlier. Two seasons is a trend. Three seasons is a long-term pattern that doesn’t figure to change.

The problem now for Boston is that Rask carries a cap hit of $7,000,000 per season and given his current performance it seems certain they would need to retain salary if they were in fact to trade him. Add to that the fact that he carries a modified no-trade clause that allows him to name just 8 teams to which he can be traded, and general manager Don Sweeney will be hard pressed to make any such trade a reality. 

Nonetheless, the mere fact that arguably the best Bruins insider in the business is seriously discussing the possibility of Rask being trading is quite stunning.

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