Player Profile: Tuukka Rask

Tuukka Rask was born in Savonlinna, Finland on April 10, 1987. At only 16 years old, Tuukka left home to play for Ilves Tampere of the SM-Liga. He played in the World Junior Championships and the SM-Liga's equivalent of juniors, where he clearly stood out from all the other goalies his age.

2004-05: Rask faced new challenges behind poor defenses and against strong opposition in both SM-Liiga and the WJC. He collected most of his minutes in Finnish Jr. A where he won the championship after a beyond-perfect performance, 9 wins in 10 games with a GAA of 0.87 and saves at .973. The magic wore off by the year's U18 WC, however, where Rask was disappointing.

2005-06: The pecking order at the goalie position expectedly went through changes over the course of the season. Rask with his very limited experience wasn't ready to take over Juha Pitkämäki at first. The fall season was about backup duties, but once Rask returned from the WJC's, he excelled in a couple of games. Soon it became apparent that he wasn't just riding a hot streak but given a start after another, quietly taking over the starter's position. He finished with a strong 2.09 GAA and .926 save percentage in 30 games.

2006-07: Ilves headed into the year with a teenage goalie tandem Tuukka Rask (BOS) and Riku Helenius (TB). Helenius suffered a shoulder injury in practice early in the season before he got to play and the recovery took longer than anticipated. In turn, Rask had more than enough work to deal with. He played 49 games and faced the second most shots in the league, taking care of WJC duties on the side. Rask performed commendably, saving Ilves on many occasions by winning close games when the team couldn’t score. His GAA of 2.39 and the save percentage .928 were among the league’s finest. Rask streched a gap to the team’s second best player perhaps wider than in any other SM-liiga organisation. (Yearly Summaries courtesy of hockeysfuture.)

2007-08 Prediction: Starting Goalie - Providence (AHL) (though a strong camp could raise questions on where he should be)