Ruuuuuutuuuuuuu!

The news the Caniacs everywhere had all been waiting and hoping for came from the Carolina Hurricanes early this morning - Tuomo Ruutu has resigned with the Canes, inking a 3 year deal worth $11.4 million.

Ruutu, a Restricted Free Agent, had filed for salary arbitration earlier this summer, and had a hearing date set for July 30th. While both parties had emphasized all along that they hoped to avoid going all the way through to arbitration, little movement had been seen in the last few weeks. In the end the two sides agreed to a 3 year deal with salary increases for each season - Ruutu will be paid $3 million in 2009/2010, $4 million the following season and $4.4 million in 2011/2012.

In a statement released by the team, GM Jim Rutherford had this to say:

“We are very happy to have Tuomo under contract on a long-term deal and to avoid arbitration. He is still quite young at 26, and is one of the cornerstones of our team moving forward.”

Javier Serna over at Canes Now managed to track down Ruutu at his family's summer cottage in southern Finland via mobile phone (evidently, not the easiest thing to do) to get the player's take on his new contract:

“I definitely like the deal, I’m glad it’s not going to arbitration. I really wanted to stay in Carolina.”

Ruutu is coming off season in which he set career highs in goals (26), assists (28) and points (54). He also led the Hurricanes in hits with 228. But the winger thinks his future could/should be even brighter:

“I hope those numbers will go up. I don’t think I’ve reached my peak yet. That’s why I try to work out every day. I’m 26 [years old] and I still think I can get better.”

The Canes are banking on Ruutu continuing to improve as well:

“I would expect for him to be somewhere between that 25- and 35-goal range with this contract,” said Rutherford. “He’s certainly in the age where’s he’s coming into his prime.”

In the end both sides essentially got what they wanted in the deal. The Cames locked up one of their most important pieces for the next 3 years and Ruutu got the security he was looking for, in a place that he had come to love.


Wit this signing the 2009/2010 version of the Carolina Hurricanes is falling into place. Rutherford has managed to retain virtually all of the pieces he targeted, and has added some key free agent depth, toughness and versatility. There's still talk from the GM of adding another top-4 defenseman via either free agency or trade, and with Ruutu locked up the Canes front office can turn all of their attention to that final detail. The coming days and weeks still promise to be interesting, but I'm already chomping at the bit for training camp and the first puck drop of the new season.

-m