Tuukka Rask Admits He Knew Nothing About Bruins When He Was Traded

Tuukka Rask retired as the all-time winningest goalie for the Boston Bruins, but when he was traded to the team in 2006 from the Toronto Maple Leafs, he knew nothing about the organization.

On the Sept. 5 episode of the “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcast, Rask explained that he was at a party in his native country of Finland when he got the call from his agent about the trade and wasn’t exactly emotional about the move.

“It didn’t bother me because my plan was always to stay in Finland a year or two anyways,” Rask said on the podcast. “I never attended Leafs camps or nothing. They sent me the draft jersey, that’s about it.”

Rask was selected 21st overall in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft as the top-ranked European goaltender with a 1.86 goals-against average and .935 save percentage. Toronto deemed Justin Pogge as their potential goalie of the future so they traded Rask to the Bruins in exchange for Andrew Raycroft.

“I didn’t know anything about the Leafs. Obviously, I knew the Maple Leafs are a great organization,” Rask said. “But, I knew even less about the Bruins. I’m like, ‘Who the (expletive) watches the Bruins?'”

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Not knowing what to expect in his first NHL training camp, Rask knew he wouldn’t be successful if he attended camp with a “let’s just see what it’s like” attitude.

“When I came to camp, I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna be the best goalie,'” Rask explained. “I don’t know how good of a camp I had, but obviously, I didn’t make the team. You don’t know as a young kid that the team is set, you think you have a chance.”

Rask began his career for Boston with the Bruins’ AHL affiliate in Providence. He played only five games in his first two years with Boston, posting a record of 3-1-1 before making the jump to the big club permanently in the 2009-2010 season.

“I had a lot of starts in my third year here,” Rask said. “Then we lost the infamous series to the Flyers and then we go to Europe to start the next season and we don’t know who’s gonna be the starter. Timmy (Thomas) takes the job.

“We split the net during the regular season quite a bit that year, but then obviously playoffs was out of this world how he played.”

Although Rask and Thomas never got to the bromance level of Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman with hugs after wins, Rask said he and his net partner had just as good a relationship.

“First of all, he played in Finland for a long time. So, he’s like half-Finnish,” Rask joked. “He still has a bunch of friends over there so that helped. We had the same agent, that helped.”

Rask retired from the NHL in 2022 after 15 years, all with the Bruins, with 308 wins, a .921 save percentage and 2.28 goals-against average to go along with 52 shutouts. He won the Stanley Cup in 2011 as the backup to Thomas and led the Bruin to two other Cup finals in 2013 and 2019.