David Krejci and Tuukka Rask, the Bruins’ second- and third-longest tenured players behind only Patrice Bergeron, are both unrestricted free agents after the season.
Krejci, 35, and Rask, 34, are both still showing they are capable of playing well in key roles on a team with Stanley Cup aspirations, making the conversation about their futures even more interesting.
Meeting with the media via Zoom on Tuesday, Bruins president Cam Neely discussed both. On Rask, Neely said it’s unlikely anything will happen before the end of the season, with both sides agreeing to hold off on further contract talks until then.
“Both Tuukka and our camp, we said we’d table everything until after the season,” Neely said. “See how things go and get a better sense after the season’s over for how Tuukka’s feeling both mentally and physically, and go from there.”
Rask was very good in the Bruins’ five-game first-round series win over the Capitals, posting a .941 save percentage in the series and stopping 40 of the 41 shots he faced in Game 5 on Sunday.
“I think he’s been extremely dialed in this past series,” Neely said of Rask. “He played really well, was very poised. He was square to the puck in my opinion. I thought he handled rebounds well. He got out and played some pucks, which certainly helps the defensemen.”
Neely said that although he has not talked to Rask and Krejci personally about whether they want to be back with the Bruins next season, he would guess that they would.
“I haven’t talked to them myself, personally, about that. I’ve kind of let the season go along and just let them focus on playing this year. My guess is that they would,” he said. “I think they would both probably want to finish their careers as Boston Bruins. Let’s see what happens this offseason, but there’s something to be said for playing for one organization, and right now that’s what it’s looking like for both Tuukka and David.”
While Neely didn’t directly say the Bruins want to re-sign both, it certainly sounds like there would be interest if the money works. The Bruins have Taylor Hall, Sean Kuraly, Mike Reilly, Kevan Miller and Jaroslav Halak as other notable unrestricted free agents, and Brandon Carlo, Nick Ritchie, Trent Frederic and Ondrej Kase as restricted free agents. The Bruins are projected to have about $27 million in cap space.
“We’ll have to see how we can make things work,” Neely said. “Again, we want to get through this season and see how things play out and go from there. The way that Tuukka’s played throughout his career here has been pretty impressive. Now he’s the leader not only in regular-season wins, but playoff wins. And David Krejci, he always seems to elevate his game in the playoffs. He’s done it before and he’s doing it again now. So we’ll go from there once the season’s over.”