NHL - News

NY Rangers - After winning the Stanley Cup twice in the past four seasons with the Los Angeles Kings, Jarret Stoll is hoping to help the New York Rangers achieve that goal this season. Stoll, who became an unrestricted free agent July 1, agreed to a contract with the Rangers on Monday. Terms were not released, but Sportsnet reported it's a one-year, $800,000 contract. Stoll, 33, won the Stanley Cup with the Kings in 2012 and 2014. He had a goal and an assist when the Kings defeated the Rangers in five games in the 2014 Cup Final. He also reached the Cup Final with the Edmonton Oilers in 2006. Stoll spent the past seven seasons with the Kings, scoring six goals with 11 assists in 73 games in 2014-15. In a statement on his Twitter account, Stoll thanked the Kings front office, coaching staff and his former teammates, saying he "will cherish those memories in Los Angeles forever."
A second-round pick (No. 36) by the Oilers at the 2002 NHL Draft, Stoll set NHL career highs with 22 goals and 68 points during the 2005-06 season. Stoll was sentenced to community service after he pleaded guilty June 25 to two reduced misdemeanor charges to resolve a felony cocaine case. He said he has completed his legal obligations. Stoll has won 55.1 percent of his faceoffs in his career. He has a faceoff win percentage of 51 percent or higher in every season.
Stoll has 140 goals and 379 points in 792 regular-season games with the Oilers and Kings. He has 10 goals and 26 points in 93 playoff games.
Boston - With about a month remaining before the start of training camp, Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask said he isn't any worse for wear after the most taxing season of his NHL career. Rask played a career-high 70 games last season for the Bruins, who would've needed more from the 2014 Vezina Trophy winner had they not missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in eight years. Surprisingly, the 28-year-old said it didn't take too long for him to recover from the grind of the 2014-15 season. Rask recently returned to the Boston area and Monday participated in the Putts and Punches for Parkinson's Golf Tournament, hosted by former Bruins Dirty Dog Shawn Thornton, at Ferncroft Country Club.
Rask ranked third behind Washington Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby (73 games) and Los Angeles Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick (72 games) in games played, but the Finn's statistics didn't reflect a tired goaltender. Rask had a 2.40 goals-against average and .922 save percentage and kept the Bruins in the playoff race until the last weekend of the season. Because the Bruins came up short in their bid to continue their playoff-qualifying streak, major changes ensued. General manager Peter Chiarelli was fired and replaced by assistant GM Don Sweeney. Defenseman Dougie Hamilton and forward Milan Lucic were traded to the Calgary Flames and Los Angeles Kings, respectively. Forward Matt Beleskey was signed as an unrestricted free agent, and forward Jimmy Hayes was acquired in a trade with the Florida Panthers for forward Reilly Smith.
Rask, who is signed through 2019-20 at a salary-cap charge of $7 million, has been with the Bruins since the 2009-10 season. The Stanley Cup championship of 2011 and the run to the Cup Final in 2013 are further in the past, and the 2014 Eastern Conference Second Round loss to the Montreal Canadiens and misstep last season have changed some perceptions of the Bruins.
Rask said he believes in what Sweeney and management has done and feels expectations internally will remain high this season. Along with Rask, the core group of defensemen Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg, centers Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, and wing Brad Marchand should be back in the lineup this fall. Sweeney's plan for the Bruins' improvement includes more than changing some of the personnel. Through coach Claude Julien and his staff, the Bruins want to be a little more aggressive in all three zones in order to put pressure on the opposition while not abandoning the defensive structure that made the Bruins a model of defensive play in the League for the past eight seasons.
Another change will be the backup goaltender. Niklas Svedberg left the Bruins as a free agent to sign with Salavat Yulaev Ufa of the Kontinental Hockey League this summer. It looks like the Bruins are going to set up a competition between 2012 first-round draft pick Malcolm Subban, 2015 Hobey Baker Award finalist Zack McIntyre and journeyman Justin Smith. Subban and Smith, 26, formed the goaltending tandem for the Providence Bruins of the American Hockey League last season while McIntyre was a junior at the University of North Dakota. Subban, who played a little more than one period in the NHL last season, is the only one of the three who has played in an NHL game. Rask said he's sure something will be worked out between those three or by the addition of a player from outside the organization. Regardless, he's only concerned about what he can do to help the Bruins return to the postseason. If that means matching or surpassing his ice time from last season, so be it. There's no magic number of games he wants to play or thinks he has to play in order to be at his best.