Boston Bruins netminder Tuukka Rask isn't sure about what he wants to do once his contract is up.
"I have one year left in the contract, so we'll see if I even play," Rask said, according to the Boston Globe's Matt Porter. "We'll see. Always a possibility."
Rask has split time with Jaroslav Halak over the last two campaigns. The latter's future with the club is unclear, as he'll turn 35 in May and is set for free agency at season's end. Rask, meanwhile, will play out his eight-year, $56-million contract next year.
When asked if he could return to his native Finland, the 33-year-old confirmed playing overseas isn't in his plans.
"No, no, I wouldn't. ... Family time." Rask said.
He added, "Just be home. The wear and tear of the travel with two, almost three kids now, makes you think. I love to do it. But it’s tough.”
Rask ranks first among goaltenders with a 2.12 goals-against average and second with a .929 save percentage this season. He's appeared in 41 games while Halak has played 31.
The 2014 Vezina Trophy winner has suited up in 536 games since debuting during the 2007-08 season. He's amassed a 291-158-64 record alongside a 2.26 goals-against average and .922 save percentage. He was a part of the Bruins' Stanley Cup-winning team in 2011.
The Calgary Flames' newest blue-line addition brings a quality often overlooked in today's speed-and-skill game.
Connor Mackey, a WCHA First Team All-Star at Minnesota State this past season, inked a one-year, entry level contract with the Flames on Friday. Mike Hastings, his head coach in college, spoke highly of the 6-foot-2, 205-pound rearguard's physical play.
"He has a little bit of a natural nastiness to his game, where he’ll be aggressive, and the physical piece just came as he continued to get stronger,” Hastings told the Calgary Sun's Wes Gilbertson.
“You need to have an edge to get guys to think about, ‘Do I really want to come in here? Do I really want to get inside the dots? Do I really want to stay at the net?" Hastings added. "That, I think, is the maturation from his sophomore year - when he could have signed - to this past year."
Mackey, 23, tallied seven goals and 24 points in 36 games this past season. He was considered TSN's top undrafted free agent and received interest from 28 of the league's 31 teams, TSN's Frank Seravalli reports.
Calgary also added another college free-agent defenseman to the mix in Colton Poolman. He isn't as highly regarded as Mackey, specifically on the offensive side of the puck. However, he's a finalist for the NCHC defensive defenseman of the year. Seravalli notes he possesses "shutdown capability" and "oozes character."
“They’re not 18-year-old kids - they’re young men,” Flames general manager Brad Treliving told The Athletic's Scott Cruickshank. “They’re big guys, physically strong guys.”
The 24-year-old Poolman tallied 17 points in 31 games last season at North Dakota, where he was the team's captain for two years. He's the younger brother of Winnipeg Jets defenseman Tucker Poolman.
With the NHL season on pause, it's only natural to be going through withdrawal.
But while the lack of games is an unfortunate - albeit necessary - development, there are plenty of ways to fill the void.
Books certainly fall into that category, so here's a list of entertaining and informative hockey reads as compiled by theScore's hockey editors:
'Game Change'
Bill Smith / National Hockey League / Getty
Authored by legendary Montreal Canadiens goalie Ken Dryden, "Game Change: The Life and Death of Steve Montador and the Future of Hockey" masterfully mixes the macro- and micro-narratives of a complicated issue into a thought-provoking read about head injuries in hockey.
Dryden - who takes NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to task throughout the 357-page book - drills down on the ins and outs of the neurodegenerative disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) while simultaneously telling the story of Montador, a former NHL defenseman who died in 2015 at the age of 35.
You will learn so much from reading "Game Change" because it's a tribute to Montador as well as a lecture to powerful people in the sport about the dangers of on-ice violence.
'Playing with Fire'
B Bennett / Bruce Bennett / Getty
"Playing with Fire" is the gripping autobiography of Theo Fleury's life. Fleury - who co-wrote the book with Kirstie McLellan Day - dealt with a rough upbringing, as his father was an alcoholic and his mother was a drug addict.
In the book, he discusses being sexually assaulted by his junior hockey coach and how it triggered his own alcohol and drug addiction. Despite plenty of obstacles, including his small stature, Fleury carved out a borderline Hall of Fame career, winning the Stanley Cup and an Olympic gold medal while collecting 1,088 points in 1,084 NHL games. You won't be able to put this book down.
'Behind the Bench'
Eliot J. Schechter / National Hockey League / Getty
Craig Custance takes a unique, well-thought-out idea and executes it perfectly in this brief but insightful read. In "Behind the Bench: Inside the Minds of Hockey's Greatest Coaches," he sits down with several big-name NHL bench bosses - including Mike Babcock, Joel Quenneville, Mike Sullivan, and Ken Hitchcock - and gets them to dissect the biggest games they've ever coached in great detail.
A foreword by Sidney Crosby draws you in right away, and behind-the-scenes looks from the masterminds of some of the most memorable games of a generation create a highly enjoyable reading experience.
'Hockey Confidential'
Claus Andersen / Getty Images Sport / Getty
We all know Bob McKenzie as one of hockey's best insiders, and in 2014 he gave fans an even deeper look behind the scenes with "Hockey Confidential: Inside Stories from People Inside the Game." McKenzie takes readers through 11 chapters that span all sorts of topics, including the story of John Tavares and his lacrosse-legend uncle who shares his name to explanations of how advanced stats like Corsi and Fenwick came to be.
There's also a chapter on Connor McDavid, who hadn't even set foot in the NHL yet. McKenzie goes into detail about McDavid's potential as a future superstar in the league, which is sublime to read now, knowing how the dynamic forward panned out. This is simply an insightful, quick, and easy read for hockey fans.
'King of Russia'
picture alliance / picture alliance / Getty
Dave King had a unique perspective as the first Canadian head coach to ever ply his trade in what became the KHL. In "King of Russia: A Year in the Russian Super League," which he co-wrote with Eric Duhatschek, the longtime bench boss tells the engaging story of guiding a Metallurg Magnitogorsk squad featuring budding phenom Evgeni Malkin in the season following the 2004-05 NHL lockout.
King's amusing and heartfelt journal entries illuminate the unpredictable nature of both hockey and life in Russia while conveying the culture shock that comes with moving halfway around the world. It's an eye-opening account of a league many have heard about but few in North America have experienced firsthand.
It also shows the reader how challenging - but ultimately rewarding - it can be to break out of one's comfort zone by taking on a new adventure.
'Stat Shot'
Ethan Miller / Getty Images Sport / Getty
With advanced stats becoming an integral tool for evaluating players, "Hockey Abstract Presents ... Stat Shot: The Ultimate Guide to Hockey Analytics" is a great read for those who wish to learn more about this ever-growing pool of data. Rob Vollman puts the daunting task of grasping analytics into layman's terms, making the read both fun and informative.
From evaluating the best way to build a team to projecting the significance of a player's numbers in junior to exploring the application of shot-based metrics, Vollman uses this wide world of numbers to provide in-depth answers to a series of important questions. Whether you're new to the game or a seasoned vet, "Stat Shot" is a must-read for all hockey lovers.
'Coach: The Pat Burns Story'
B Bennett / Bruce Bennett / Getty
Going from a Montreal police officer to a Stanley Cup-winning head coach isn't exactly the standard career path for most in the NHL, but that was the trail blazed by Pat Burns. In this book - which came out two years after Burns' death - Rosie DiManno traces his rise from a cop to the QMJHL to the AHL and then to the NHL with the Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, and New Jersey Devils.
"Coach" doesn't sugarcoat Burns, showing he had his demons to deal with during a life that was tragically cut short. However, it also paints the picture of a man who was best known for his outwardly combative nature but was truly a teddy bear on the inside.
With their sport on an indefinite pause and everyone in self-quarantine or practicing social distancing, NHL players are starting to get creative with their sudden abundance of free time. Here's a look at what some players have shared on social media to date.
Sergei Bobrovsky
The Florida Panthers netminder kept his glove hand ready while taking in some sun.
Cal Clutterbuck praised childcare workers and teachers and demonstrated his dad skills in the process.
After 8 days at home with his kids, Cal Clutterbuck would like to send a shoutout to all the childcare workers and teachers out there. 🙌 (watch until the end 😂) pic.twitter.com/EaCldmj2oM
The Toronto Maple Leafs forward is looking for fans to play video games with him while he streams on Twitch.
Starting next week I’m going to start a stream and invite you guys to come and play online with me! Follow me here https://t.co/K2f0p9YIVX and stay tuned!
The NHL season is suspended indefinitely due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and while the league hopes it will eventually be able to resume and conclude the 2019-20 campaign, that's far from a foregone conclusion. This week and next, we're breaking down some of the major storylines that hang in the balance.
Andrei Vasilevskiy entered the 2019-20 season hiding from nothing and no one. Fresh off a five-month summer, he had begrudgingly come to terms with the fact that his club, the 62-win Tampa Bay Lightning, had lost four straight games to the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round of the playoffs.
"I think we just got too comfortable in the regular season," Vasilevskiy said in September at the NHL's annual player media tour in Chicago.
"In our heads, it was like, 'Oh, we'll be alright in the playoffs because we're doing great in the regular season,'" he continued. "But the reality is that in the playoffs it's way different hockey. We just weren't ready for that."
Scott Audette / Getty Images
Those words, and the words from his teammates and head coach Jon Cooper at training camp later that month, set the tone for the year. Tampa had found out the hard way that one bad week in April can completely undo 82 games of outright dominance. But the Lightning weren't about to make any excuses. Redemption, they said, would come only in the form of playoff success.
Yet here we are, two-and-a-half weeks out from the traditional start of the NHL postseason, and the entire sporting calendar is frozen. As you know, a significantly more important matter - stopping the spread of the novel coronavirus - has consumed the globe, rightly pausing all competition-based narratives, including Tampa's quest for redemption, for the foreseeable future.
It all leaves two questions flailing in the wind. Exactly how well was the 2019-20 squad playing before action halted? Did management do enough to prepare for spring's "way different hockey"?
On the surface, this season's team couldn't hold a candle to last year's juggernaut. On pace for 50 wins, 12 shy of 2018-19's outrageous benchmark, the 2019-20 Bolts were probably going to finish second in the Atlantic Division rather than first in the league. Their offensive output had dipped from 3.89 goals per game to 3.47, while their defensive work had led to more goals against (2.77 per game up from 2.69). Even their special teams had sunk, with the power play ranking fifth and the penalty kill 14th after both led the NHL last year.
Scott Audette / Getty Images
But the numbers lurking below the surface paint a rosier picture. Before the pause, the 2019-20 squad was rocking even-strength differentials nearly identical to those of last year's team across five key categories: shot attempts, shots on goal, scoring chances, goals scored, and expected goals.
SEASON
ATTEMPTS
SHOTS
CHANCES
GOALS
XGOALS
2018-19
51.2%
50.8%
51.7%
56.7%
53.3%
2019-20
52.0%
50.2%
53.8%
56.8%
53.5%
Source: Natural Stat Trick
Team goaltending had improved as well, with Vasilevskiy and Curtis McElhinney uniting for an impressive .918 even-strength save percentage - a notable upgrade over 2018-19's mark of .904. McElhinney, one of the league's best No. 2s, was a smart offseason pickup by GM Julien BriseBois. Former backup Louis Domingue filled in admirably for an injured Vasilevskiy last year, but McElhinney's willingness to sign a two-year deal on the cheap pushed Domingue down the depth chart and eventually out of the organization.
Tampa made only one major roster move over the summer, trading forward J.T. Miller to the Canucks for salary-cap relief. Given the club's underwhelming postseason, it would have been mighty tempting to steer the ship in an entirely new direction. Fire Cooper? Unload a star or two? But BriseBois instead opted to tinker around the margins. He brought in Pat Maroon, a bruising winger who had just won the Stanley Cup with St. Louis, to help fill Miller's skates, while veteran defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk took unrestricted free agent Anton Stralman's spot on the blue line.
From there, BriseBois used draft and prospect capital to acquire two pieces ahead of February's trade deadline: Blake Coleman, a speedy two-way goal-scorer, and Barclay Goodrow, a tenacious pest of a penalty killer. They appeared in a combined 17 games for Tampa. That's obviously suboptimal. Both wingers, however, are signed to team-friendly deals through the 2020-21 season, so the assets shipped out to acquire their services and a third-round pick - two first-rounders, high-end forward prospect Nolan Foote, and 26-year-old AHL forward Anthony Greco - weren't sacrificed for nothing. BriseBois, it turns out, played his cards right by reeling in guys with term.
Icon Sportswire / Getty Images
Though Miller exploded in Vancouver, recording 72 points in 69 games prior to the pause, it's hard to make the case that last year's Lightning roster was more talented, more balanced, or better equipped for the rigors of playoff hockey. This season's third and fourth lines are spunkier, the backup is steadier, and the defense corps is improved, if only slightly. The team's veteran leaders - Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, and Vasilevskiy - remain in fine form, while the stocks of 24-and-under studs Brayden Point, Anthony Cirelli, and Mikhail Sergachev continue to rise.
All of this is to say that even though the win total might not show it, this latest iteration of the Lightning could definitely hang with last year's powerhouse. They hit rough patches in 2019-20, starting the season a middling 17-13-4 and then winning only three of their final 10 games, but in between and under the surface, they were brilliant. You certainly can't claim they "got too comfortable" during the truncated campaign. The adversity they first encountered in the Columbus series hit them early and often.
If the NHL resumes play and manages to string together a postseason of some kind, the Lightning should be healthier; Stamkos, for one, is sidelined until at least late April. They shouldn't have a target on their backs this time around, either - that's reserved for the 100-point Bruins and defending champion Blues. Most notably, they're built to last. The margin of error is thinner in the playoffs - fewer goals, fewer power-play opportunities, more physicality - and that might suit this recalibrated Tampa team perfectly.
The Edmonton Oilers have inked forward Raphael Lavoie to an entry-level contract, the team announced Saturday.
Edmonton selected Lavoie, 19, with the 38th overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft.
Traded by the Halifax Mooseheads to the Chicoutimi Sagueneens in January, the 6-foot-4 center racked up 38 goals and 82 points through 55 games between the two QMJHL clubs this season. The QMJHL officially canceled its season on March 17 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Lavoie also represented Canada at the 2020 world juniors, contributing two assists through seven games to help his team capture a gold medal.
The New York Islanders have no intention on letting star forward Mathew Barzal slip away once he hits restricted free agency at the end of the 2019-20 season.
General manager Lou Lamoriello confirmed as much in a recent Q&A with Isles fans on the club's website when asked whether he'd match a potential offer sheet for the 22-year-old.
"It is our intention to not allow it to get to that point, but should that happen, the answer is yes," Lamoriello said.
Barzal's entry-level deal is soon to expire, and he's one of the top RFA's on the board this summer. It was offer sheet pandemonium last offseason as an unprecedented amount of young superstars were due big money on their second contracts.
Only one offer sheet ultimately came about, as the Montreal Canadiens unsuccessfully tried to poach forward Sebastian Aho from the Carolina Hurricanes.
Barzal was drafted 16th overall by the Isles in 2015, and he's led New York in scoring in each of his three full seasons in the NHL. This year, he was on track to do the same before the league went on pause, registering 60 points in 68 games.
Defensemen Ryan Pulock and Devon Toews are also RFA's Lamoriello needs to take care of this offseason, but Barzal is the No. 1 priority by a landslide, as he could reasonably become the team's highest-paid player.
The Islanders are projected to have just over $12.6 million in space for 2020-21, according to Cap Friendly. However, with the NHL's revenue streams shut down for the foreseeable future due to the coronavirus, it's unclear what next season's salary cap will be.
