It seems like every season in the NHL there’s a trade with a clear winner and loser. Sometimes it can take months or even years to know who the winner is, and the impact of the deal can be felt for years to come.
As far as the Toronto Maple Leafs are concerned, the decision to trade Tukka Rask to the Boston Bruins for Andrew Raycroft in 2006 was a clear failure. While it’s impossible to predict the outcome of a trade, the final decade of Maple Leafs hockey could have been completely different had this deal not been made.
Maple leaves at the turn of the century
The Maple Leafs were very good at the goalie position in the early 2000s. In 1998, the Maple Leafs signed free agent Curtis Joseph through the 2001-02 season. In 2002, they signed Hall of Fame goalkeeper Ed Belfort through the 2005-06 season.
In the 2005 NHL Draft, the Maple Leafs selected Tukka Rask with the 21st overall pick, the second goalie selected in the draft after superstar Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens. Despite high expectations for the young netminder, the Finn chose to play for Ilves Tampere of the Finnish Elite League after the draft and never donned a Maple Leafs uniform.
After a lackluster 2005-06 season that saw the Maple Leafs miss the playoffs and finish ninth in the Eastern Conference, then-general manager John Ferguson Jr. was tasked with finding a replacement goaltender. Since Belfort’s contract was about to expire but the management had no intention of rebuilding, Ferguson decided to go the trade route to make his team better.
Maple Leafs No Need to Rebuild
On June 24, 2006, the Maple Leafs announced the acquisition of Andrew Raycroft from the Boston Bruins in exchange for Rask.
Raycroft was a fourth-round pick of the Bruins in 1998 and spent most of his first three seasons with Boston’s AHL affiliate in Providence, Rhode Island. In the 2003-04 season, he went 29-18-9 with a goals-against average (GAA) of 2.05 and a save percentage (SV%) of 0.926, eventually winning the Calder Rookie of the Year Award.
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The lockout of the 2004-05 season was probably the worst thing to happen to Raycroft’s career, as he never returned to the Calder Cup level we saw in 2003-04. In the 2005-06 season, Raycroft started 30 games for the Bruins, going 8-19-2 with a GAA of 3.71 and a SV% of 0.879.
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Despite the Maple Leafs’ desire to acquire Calder Trophy winner Ray Croft in an attempt to bring in a starting goaltender who could be NHL ready, the Leafs ended up with the 2005-06 version of the goaltender. In trading Rask, the team gave up any goaltending stability it might have had over the next few years. The Maple Leafs spent 10 years wandering between goaltenders before landing their first true No. 1 goaltender since Belfort in Frederik Andersen.
Rask dominates for Bruins
As a member of the Bruins, Rask began his tenure with the team’s AHL affiliate in Providence, where he enjoyed two outstanding seasons, compiling an overall record of 60-33-6. The Bruins had a reliable No. 1 goaltender in Tim Thomas from 2006 to 2011, so it took a while for Rask to get a chance to shine as a starter.
Rask first came to prominence in the NHL during the 2009-10 season. He started 45 games and compiled a 22-12-5 record with a 1.97 GAA and .937 SV%. Although he did not participate in the playoffs in 2010-11, he was a member of the Bruins team that won the Stanley Cup.
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From the 2012-13 season to the 2019-20 season, Rask won 244 games, ranking second in the league. His 2.28 GAA is the lowest of any goalie with more than 250 games played, and he’s tied with Marc-Andre Fleury for the most blocks in the NHL with 39 in the same span. He also won the Vezina Trophy in 2013-14.
Heading into the 2019-20 season, Rask was having one of the best seasons of his career. He leads the league in GAA with 2.12 and is second in SV% at .929 and is emerging as one of the front-runners for the Vezina Trophy. The Bruins are having another dominant season, finishing a distant first with 100 points. Rask led the team with a 26-8-6 record in 41 starts.
what could have been
The relationship between Rask and the Maple Leafs has become deeply personal. The Bruins have dominated the Atlantic Division for the past six seasons and crushed Toronto’s playoff dreams multiple times. The Bruins appear to have the Maple Leafs’ number, which only adds insult to injury knowing the leading goaltender could be in Toronto.
If the Maple Leafs hadn’t traded Ray Croft in 2006, things might have been very different in Toronto in the 2010s. Names like Jonathan Bernier, James Reimer and Visa Toscala may not appear in a Maple Leafs uniform.
While keeping Rask would solidify the goaltender position more quickly, it could prevent Toronto from acquiring current stars like Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander. We’ll never know if retaining Rask would have led to success for the Maple Leafs, but based on the trade made, we could certainly label him as the one who got away.
