Tuukka Rask officially retires from Boston Bruins, walks away from 'the best sports city in the world'

Tuukka Rask has officially announced his retirement from the NHL.

Boston's longtime netminder released a lengthy statement on social media Wednesday calling it a career after 15 seasons. The news comes one day after rumors began to swirl that Rask was considering hanging up his skates following a brief comeback attempt last month.

The 34-year-old was an unrestricted free agent over the summer when he chose to undergo hip surgery meant to support an eventual return to game action. Rask was able to start skating again in November, and signed a one-year, $1 million contract with Boston on Jan. 11.

He backstopped the Bruins to a 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers in his season debut and didn't admit publicly to feeling any physical discomfort afterwards. The grind of another NHL campaign quickly seemed to take its toll, though. Rask was pulled from his next start after allowing five goals on 12 shots to the Carolina Hurricanes, but did secure another win over the Winnipeg Jets.

The situation for Rask began deteriorating again from there, and he moved to a backup role behind Linus Ullmark before being removed from the lineup entirely prior to the NHL All-Star break. Boston hoped that, with some rest, Rask might still be up the task of helping them through the second half.

As Rask himself explained in Wednesday's release, it just wasn't meant to be.

«Today is a day that I hoped would never come,» Rask wrote. «But now that it's here, I feel I owe it to everyone to hear it from me. When I made the decision to have surgery on my hip last summer, I did so knowing that the road to recovery would be challenging. I also knew it was something I would have to do if I wanted to give myself a chance to play my best hockey again. The