Tuukka f'ing Rask time?

ok, interesting. Ya i was off w/r/t how much he would have made and didnt know he had made 20 million. In light of that, it makes much more sense. Still a tough decision and im not sure what i would do, but I can see why he is taking the year off.

Its going to be pretty hard to comeback after a year off id imagine at that age, seems like a retirement. I know that he wanted to play in the olympics and he could do that, but if he doesnt play the season, it seems that quick is prob a better option to be the starting goalie (unless his stats fall of a cliff or something).

It's a pretty dumb decision. You're 38 years old, not 28. You aren't going to make that money back. Almost anything he could do in this year off he could have waited another year or two for until he retired. Whatevs, his decision .. etc.

ya, thats how i look at it. At the same time, if his parents really are in bad health, then that makes it pretty tough.

What's the story about his parents? Thought he was retiring to politard full time.

His parents are in very poor health, so I don't think this is the case

I didn't see that mentioned in his FB post, but that would probably be the exception. If it's just to be a 'family man' or use the publicity as a soapbox for his politarding, then it's pretty dumb.

Quick is gonan ship the Gold for the USA in 2014 regardless of what Thomas does.

I feel like Thomas could come back for the 2013-2014 season to do one more year in the NHL and then be the backup or #3 for Team USA in the Olympics (as long as Bettman isn't a bitch about NHL players playing) before finally hanging them up.

well w/e his parents are sick he wants to take his 5 million and hang with them good for him bye bye. he f'ed teh team comeraderie and was a huge distraction with his politardness man thanks for the cup now go away.

as was mentioned it's only $3m* in salary he'd be giving up next year, but a $5m cap hit for the Bruins.

what are the exemptions for getting a 35+ contract off the books? i remember when the CBA was signed analysts made a big deal about how there were NO exceptions, and teams were locked into having a 35+ contract count, no matter what. so if a guy got hit by truck, adducted by aliens, or whatever it didn't matter and they team was on the hook anyway. but recently it seems like teams have gotten out of them iirc. am i remembering this wrong?

anyway, my point was it'd be pretty hilarious for Thomas, if he's really MAD at the Bruins, to retire and stick them with this $5m cap hit, if he doesn't really care about the money.

* - BEFORE BARRACK OSAMA TAKES HIS 75% CUT OFF THE TOP

/politarding

there are no exceptions except for injury. the bruins might be able to deal his contract elsewhere. i don't think that rule will be changed substantially, but who knows.

do you recall how strict they are on what type of injury lets a team off the hook? like does it have to be a real career ending injury verified by an independent league doctor or something, cause i mean otherwise probably every 35+ player can make up some injury.

unless Thomas is dead serious about not playing next year, how about the Leafs? does that make sense to anyone else? or maybe he wants to be in the WC now that he's living in Colorado. not that they're super west or anything, but a team like CoLOLmbus could use a goalie, and might appreciate the $3m salary and $5m cap hit. but then again no on wants to play there, and he'd probably see it as a waste of his time and energy at this point in his career.

I'm so confused HS, are you trolling? Where did he indicate this decision is about not wanting to play for Boston rather than simply not wanting to play at all?

The Leafs make a lot of sense from the Leafs point of view. As the only goaltenders to ever succeed in Toronto (exception Felix Potvin) are old, proven, veterans who have been around 10+ years. Plus, Thomas is American and Burke digs that ****. Too bad he picked Kessel instead of Parise, Brown, Callahan, bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla.

Has to be verified by league doctors. The Bruins cannot get off this hook with claims of injury.

It sounds like he is pretty serious about not playing next year, I don't think it has anything to do with the team.

not trolling Vagos, i'm just jumping to the conclusion that a big part of this is Thomas being BH about the fallout from his political stance last year. he seemed MAD that the team didn't support him, and really they did a lot to distance themselves from him (and the rumour is that it caused problems in the room too, not shocking considering we know ppl like Ference are polar opposites politically). he kind of went into a tailspin on the ice after all that and didn't play very well down the stretch. so the cynic in me says maybe he's just trying to force a trade out of town, and he will play next year.

but i guess it wouldn't shock me either if he's willing to give up $3m in salary (before taxes) to not play, spend time with his family, stick the Bruins with a $5m cap hit (plus the replacement cost of a backup), and not play. plus he might be able to make up some of that money next year if he wants to be a politard for hire or whatever. then in 2013 he's UFA if he actually wants to keep playing, and some desperate team probably would take a shot on a 1-year deal, and he can make a run at the 2014 Olympics.

as a negotiating tactic, threatening not to play is the absolute worst one, because it torpedoes your trade value. i don't think he wants to play this year; tim thomas can be accused of a lot of things, but i don't think insincerity is one of them.

but if he's MAD at the Bruins, he doesn't really care about that. also makes it easier for a good team to deal for him.

you guys might be right tho, and the fact that it's only $3m he's leaving on the table makes it an easier decision.

and if the bruins are MAD at him, they can suspend him, then toll his contract and force him to play under it next year. it doesn't make any sense at all to say 'hey, i won't play' instead of 'trade me'. someone would trade for him.

Interesting thing about the Thomas 5m cap hit. The Bruins never put Savard on LTIR, which seems likely now. Savvy's cap hit is 4m. So making that move is close to a wash provided Thomas doesn't in fact play and he isn't moved.

I'd still say it's likely he's dealt. I can guess a lot of teams would take their chances on him and hope he plays. I'm not positive, but I think any team that trades for him could potentially toll his contract to keep control of him as well. Thomas is still an asset to a lot of teams. The only thing this effects is his value. His likelihood of being moved seems to be the same, if not higher now.

I also don't buy this crap about why he's doing this at 38. Tons of goaltenders have played into their 40's. Dom effing Hasek is trying to comeback to the NHL at 47 and there are several teams supposedly interested. Also worth nothing that TT doesn't have the "miles" on him that most 38 year olds have. The politard stuff also seems like a stretch. This is almost 100% due to his parents health, and it seems quite doubtful he would share that info on FB. But knowing people are going to be viewing your page more frequently, why not troll everyone by posting your political views?

I want to focus on this part because I'm curious what occurred that indicated the team didn't support him or that they distanced themselves from him? They basically all said (teammates and bosses alike) that they were disappointed he didn't go to the White House but respect his decision to do so. They've know him for years and he's been like that (politically) all along. They knew his true colors before the public did. He wasn't suspended or reprimanded in any way, nor was his playing time affected.

I feel like the media just RAN with that story and created so much speculation that people just started assuming that the only plausible explanation for the Bruins being terrible in the second half of the season was because they were all pre-occupied with what their goalie was putting on his FB wall.

In case anyone was wondering, I'm not a big fan of the Hartley hire at all. He was a squirrel when he coached in Atlanta and I doubt things have changed much. Furthermore, it's pretty obvious he was Feaster's choice from day 1 and I don't know how thorough the search really was in the first place. It's gonna be Old Boys Club v.2.0, but at least they'll be "intellectually honest."

Fully expecting Andy Sutton to sign a multi-year contract with us on July 1st, it'll be just like ol' times.

You don't say?

Nice quote from the Sun-Times xposted in the Deadspin piece: "It's a much bigger thing than some photographs in a 48-hour window." Maybe Grind can attest to this, but my cousins in Chicago kept telling me it's been a problem for a couple years now.

Paging Pegula, Terry?

Cam and Chia privately tried to get him to change his mind for months prior. I highly doubt that caused any major problems, but it's definitely possible that it pissed off both sides.

I definitely agree with you on the media circus though. Casual fans definitely didn't care, and real fans already knew he was a Republican so it wasn't any shock. No one gave a ****, but the media just kept shoving it down our throats because they wanted it to be a big deal.

Care to elaborate why you disagree? Chia has been smart with the cap and he obviously doesn't want to take a 5m hit if he doesn't have to. With all the rumors of adding a big name first liner either via FA or trade that could easily be a roadblock. It's obviously not ideal for anyone.

I personally don't want to see TT traded. I want to see him play. I'm just not at the point where I trust Rask full time yet.