Tuukka Rask signs 8-year, $56-million contract with Boston Bruins

It appears as though the Kings got something of a bargain with goalie Jonathan Quick’s contract last summer.

Quick, the playoff MVP in the Kings’ run to the Stanley Cup in 2012, signed a 10-year extension worth $58 million, meaning his cap hit will be $5.8 million for the 2013-14 season.

On Wednesday, the Stanley Cup finalist Boston Bruins announced that they had signed their free-agent goalie Tuukka Rask to an eight-year contract worth $56 million. Rask recorded three shutouts in the Bruins’ playoff run and 19 wins in 36 games during the regular season.

So if this is the going rate for goalies making the Cup final, then the Kings are looking fairly shrewd.

Rask’s cap hit of $7 million makes him the league’s highest-paid goalie, tying him with Pekka Rinne of the Nashville Predators. Rinne reached his agreement with the Predators in late 2011.

For the sake of more comparison, another goalie contract is worth noting: Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens received a contract extension of six years and $39 million last summer. His cap hit is $6.5 million.

Rask’s deal runs through the 2020-21 season. The gamble of signing a one-year deal worth $3.5 million a little more than a year ago paid off for the 26-year-old Rask, who is four years younger than his Finnish countryman Rinne.

With a combined cap hit of $14 million, the two goalies will certainly enhance the Finnish national economy.

Meanwhile, a handful of Kings elected for salary arbitration. The four restricted free agents doing so were defensemen Jake Muzzin and Alec Martinez and forwards Trevor Lewis and Jordan Nolan.

But just because they elected for arbitration does not mean all cases will go forward. Otherwise Kings executive Jeff Solomon would be busy every waking moment the rest of this month and into August.

With the pressure of a scheduled arbitration, deals have been known to get completed just before the start of a hearing. The Winnipeg Jets had five players file for salary arbitration. Hearings are to be held in Toronto from July 22-Aug. 6.

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