Bruins president Cam Neely said last week that the Bruins and Tuukka Rask haven’t discussed a contract yet. Apparently the two sides have discussed a timetable, though.
Rask practiced with the Bruins on Sunday in their first session in over a week. Afterwards, coach Bruce Cassidy was asked during his Zoom press conference if he had an idea of how much more time Rask may need before he’s game-ready.
Cassidy revealed that the team is eyeing mid-January, specifically the week they get back from a three-game road trip to Tampa Bay, Washington and Montreal from Jan. 8-12. That puts Rask right around three weeks out.
“I would say he’s three weeks away,” Cassidy said, correcting a previous statement that it might be two weeks. “The trip we go out, there’s three weeks between now and then. … I think I was told the earliest he might be cleared to play would be when we get back from there. So I think that’s three weeks.”
Cassidy said they’ve had discussions about where Rask will get his work in while the team is on that road trip, with a possible stint with AHL Providence in play.
“I knew that week of practice was going to be when they thought he might be getting much closer,” Cassidy said. “This was a while ago. So we would have to make a determination, if we’re on the road and we’re traveling, how are we going to get him what he needs and still take care of us? That was being discussed. If he doesn’t go with us, where is he going to get the work? Is it in Providence? Is it injured players here [in Boston]? I think that was the week they were saying, any time after that he may be ready to go if his doctors clear him to play. So I think that’s three weeks.”
Rask, who is working his way back from offseason hip surgery, has now taken part in four full practices or morning skates, and the expectation would be that he’ll be even more of a regular around Warrior Ice Arena going forward.
While Rask’s first two practices came when Linus Ullmark was unavailable, he has now appeared alongside both Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman twice. Swayman was one of seven Bruins cleared from COVID protocol in time for Sunday’s practice.
Sending Swayman down to Providence remains the most likely move for the Bruins to make in order to make room for Rask. Swayman is 7-5-2 with a .917 save percentage this season, while Ullmark is 7-5-0 with a .922 save percentage.
Rask previously told ESPN’s Sean McDonough in November that he thought he could be ready for games by early January, so everything appears to be going pretty much as scheduled.
The Bruins are scheduled to play their next game Wednesday in Ottawa after Monday’s game against Pittsburgh got postponed.