Tuukka Rask has retired from hockey.

The hope for the Boston Bruins had been to have Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark handle NHL duties while Rask healed from his hip surgery. Then, Rask would return, Swayman would be sent down, and the Bruins would have a heck of a one-two punch with Swayman as insurance.

Unfortunately, Rask's hip hasn't rebounded as hoped and given he turns 35 years old in a month, it appears he's decided that's enough:

A statement from Tuukka Rask.#NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/Lae4E8rLfI

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) February 9, 2022

This always was a possibility for a surgery like that on a goalie his age, but it's still always jarring when it finally happens. It seems like it wasn't long ago that he took over for Tim Thomas after their Stanley Cup run. He finishes his career with a .921 save percentage across 564 games, every single one of them with the Bruins.

As far as things like Hall of Fame or jersey retirement go, I'll let those arguments pass for now. There is an entire offseason for that (I suspect he will at least have his jersey retired). He was one of the most consistent goalies of the cap era, though, and that's worth something.

It was a great career for the Leafs' first rounder from 2005. All the best to him and his family moving forward.

*

In more Boston news:

Boston's Brad Marchand has been suspended for six games for Roughing/High-sticking Pittsburgh's Tristan Jarry. https://t.co/riNM5EFbz0

— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) February 10, 2022

Given the nature of the incident and his history, something like this seemed likely. Between his suspension and Bergeron’s injury, the Bruins lineup is taking a hit at the top of late.

*

In more major news from the Eastern Conference, the Montreal Canadiens hired Martin St. Louis as their interim head coach, about an hour after firing Dominique Ducharme. Following the team's 7-1 embarrassment at the hands of the New Jersey Devils, there wasn't much else to be done here. This is one of the worst teams of the cap era and all the injuries can't pile high enough to equal Ducharme's ineptitude. This started last year, too; the team was markedly worse after they fired Claude Julien in basically every regard. They can thank Carey Price for largely carrying them to Stanley Cup Final.

St. Louis's first order of business: overhaul the offence. I will leave it to the more X-and-O inclined on the coaching staff to decide what to do, but Montreal's offence was a farce under Ducharme. Through the first 18 games of the shortened 2021 season, the Habs were sixth in the league in scoring, and 14^th by expected goals generated. Since firing Julien, the Habs are last in scoring. Dead last. Absolute last place in the league in scoring since firing Claude Julien. Their expected goals generated are around 27^th. Even if we look at just post-Julien last season with largely the same roster, they fell from 6^th in scoring to 25^th in scoring with a commensurate expected goals drop. That is why St. Louis's first order of business is fixing the offence. Being, uh, *checks notes* last place isn't very good in this regard.

Part of that will be bringing the kids along. Nick Suzuki's offence has not developed enough yet, Cole Caufield did not take a step forward this year, Alex Romanov could use more dimensions to his game, and so on. Montreal's problem for a long time now has been developing their draft picks, so we'll see if there's a change here.

As a Habs fan, it seems to be a good move. Whether St. Louis is the guy to turn things around, we will see. But he does seem to be a curious coach, in that he seems to want to learn, which is always a good start.   

*

The Pittsburgh Penguins provided an update on Evgeni Malkin:

Geno Malkin is now negative. Sullivan says he believes there is a good chance Malkin will play Sunday in Jersey.

— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_PGH) February 9, 2022

Very good news for the team as he seems to be just fine and should return to the lineup by the end of the week.

*

The Leafs provided an update on Auston Matthews:

Auston Matthews declares himself ready to play on Thursday against Calgary.#LeafsForever #NHL @NHLdotcom

— Dave McCarthy (@DaveAMcCarthy) February 9, 2022

Remember he took an accidental knee to the head at the end of their last game and left, not to return. Those kinds of incidents are always scary for the player because there's no real way to protect himself, and the effects can be devastating. It does seem as if Matthews has avoided serious injury and that's good news for him, the team, and fantasy players.

With his recent little scoring spurt, Matthews' 82-game paces for goals (over 60), points (over 100) and shots (about 370) have him on a torrid pace. Some of his metrics have shown very good defense this year as well, so it seems we should start talking about him for the Hart Trophy race. It is tough to say if he's leading the conversation, but he's certainly in the conversation as long as he stays healthy.

A couple notes about Matthews' fantasy value.

First, he has 85 hits in his last 92 games played. That may not seem like a lot but considering he had just 105 in his first 282 games, that is a huge step up for him. It isn't just a function of ice time, either. That is what's nice to see about this new development; it could genuinely be a new wrinkle in his game, and not a brief bump due to an ice-time jump.

Second, it would be nice for some assists to be added to the portfolio. He has yet to have a season with 40 assists, though his 82-game pace is for over 40 this campaign. A strong two months could see him get there, but when we're talking about elite fantasy assets, the well-roundedness can help. At the least, the additional hits will make up a lot of value that was missing before, meaning those relatively low assist totals would hurt less than they otherwise would.

All that aside, he's just having an unbelievable season. It's so much fun to watch the guys who came into the league 6-7 years ago just put up MVP season after MVP season. It's what makes the game so much fun at the moment, regardless of which team you actually cheer for.

*

I missed the other day that Brayden McNabb had re-upped with Vegas for three more years at nearly $2.9M per season. He was one of the guys that was what was colloquially called an "analytics darling" when I started writing about the NHL a decade ago. To see him still succeed in the NHL, on a contender, no less, all these years later is one of those validating moments that we all like to have once in a while.

*

Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond, Robby Fabbri, and Pius Suter all had a goal and an assist in Detroit's 6-3 win over Philadelphia. Even with their great fantasy nights, it was Moritz Seider who really stood out both on the ice and on the score sheet. He seemed to just run the show every time he stepped on the ice, finishing with two assists, three shots, five blocks, two hits, and a plus-3 rating. Just a monster fantasy night.

*

Dobber had a really interesting Ramblings earlier this week about defencemen that could potentially break the 80-point plateau. Most of the defencemen will, obviously, never get there, but it's a good exercise to talk about guys in the grand scheme. Talking about players in this way gets us looking at what players really can, and really can't, do. Talking about players in this way also gets us thinking about what it really takes to be a super-elite defenceman; what it really takes to post a fantasy season for the ages.

To simplify things, we're looking for top-end puck-movers who could find themselves skating a lot of minutes for a top-end team in the near future. Of the ones Dobber named, here are a few that stick out.

Thomas Chabot

This one is quite obvious. Chabot hit 55 points in 70 games as a 22-year-old and has paced for around 50 points over his last two seasons. The Ottawa team itself has really started to fill out with its young talent and there is even more on the way, including wherever they draft this year. Then if the owner decides to ever spend like a real sports owner, they could add some big offensive pieces. All the makings are here.

Adam Boqvist

I'm of the mind that Boqvist-for-Jones, including the ensuing contract, was basically an even swap. In my mind, Boqvist is a number-2 and a very good puck mover, probably as soon as next year. The Jackets are a team that need a lot more help all over the place, but the pieces are starting to come together.

Evan Bouchard

This is another obvious one. Bouchard looks every bit the number-1 defenceman the team has desperately needed and the fact he looks like it right now is great for them. The problem is their general manager is still operating in 1998 so it's unclear whether Bouchard gets the help to put the Oilers over the top. Can he rack up a bunch of points on a bad team, though? Absolutely.

Scott Perunovich

This may depend on St. Louis's ability to keep developing the players necessary to have a high-scoring team. With that said, Perunovich has looked great in his time in the NHL and, like Dobber says, just needs to stay healthy. Maybe the longest shot of the four listed, he has huge upside if all goes right.