Tuukka Rask retired from the NHL on Wednesday after 15 seasons, all with the Boston Bruins.
Tuukka Rask #40 of the Boston Bruins takes a puck to the chest.
The decision comes less than a month after the 34-year-old returned to play on Jan. 13 following his recovery from surgery he had in July to repair a torn labrum in his right hip.
Rask last played Jan. 24, when he allowed five goals on 27 shots in a 5-3 loss to the Anaheim Ducks. He was 2-2-0 with a 4.28 goals-against average and .844 save percentage this season.
“Today is a day that I hoped would never come. But now that it’s here, I feel I owe it to everyone to hear it from me,” Rask said in a statement. “Over these last few weeks, I’ve realized that my body is not responding the way it needs to for me to play at the level I expect of myself and that my teammates and Bruins fans deserve. Therefore, it is with a heavy heart that I announce my retirement from the game of hockey.”
The Bruins said Monday that Rask would not play this week because of a lower-body injury.
“He’s the one fighting through some … I don’t know if it’s medical issues, body issues for his age with the comeback,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We’ll see how it turns out.”
Rask, who turns 35 on March 10, signed a one-year, $1 million contract on Jan. 11 to return to the Bruins. The intention was for him to play for Providence of the American Hockey League before he returned to the NHL, but it had multiple games canceled because of COVID-19.
“He’s not where he needs to be,” Cassidy said Jan. 24. “I think that’s evident, and we weren’t sure he would be this soon either.”
The Bruins will again rely on Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman for the rest of the season. Ullmark is 16-6-1 with a 2.64 GAA and .913 save percentage in 24 games (23 starts). Swayman is 8-7-2 with a 2.35 GAA, .914 save percentage and one shutout in 18 games (17 starts).
Swayman was reassigned to Providence to make room for Rask on Boston’s roster before being recalled Saturday.
“While I am sad to say goodbye to the game I love, I am so very thankful to have shared these last 15 years with the greatest teammates and fans in the best sports city in the world,” Rask said. “While these experiences were all incredible, what I will remember most about all of them is the bond that I had with my teammates, coaches and team staffs, the memories that we will always have, and the friendships that will last a lifetime.”
Rask had acknowledged that the Bruins (26-15-3), who are in the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference, could not afford to let him find his game.
“The only way you can do it is by playing, and we’re midway [through] the season,” Rask said recently. “We don’t have the luxury of throwing games away, [to] put me in there and try to figure it out. I need to be sharp every time I go out there, and that’s my job to find it, I guess.”
Rask was 308-165-66 with a 2.28 GAA and .921 save percentage in 564 games. He is Boston’s leader in wins and is second in shutouts (52), behind Tiny Thompson (74).
Last season, he was 15-5-2 with a 2.28 GAA, .913 save percentage and two shutouts in 24 regular-season games, and 6-4 with a 2.36 GAA and .919 save percentage in 11 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
Rask said he returned for another chance to win the Stanley Cup. He was the backup to Tim Thomas when the Bruins won it in 2011, and was the starter when Boston lost in the Final in six games to the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013, and in seven games to the S
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