After winning the Stanley Cup in 2006, the Carolina Hurricanes began to struggle and experienced many ups and downs over the past years. Given the fact that they missed the playoffs in 2007 and 2008, reaching the NHL Eastern Conference Finals this season can certainly be considered a success. More specifically, the Hurricanes posted a 45-30-7 record in the regular season and made it to the playoffs as sixth seed. Subsequently, the team managed to win two clutch seven game series versus the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers before being swept by Pittsburgh in the Conference Finals.
Therefore, GM Jim Rutherfords’ decision to stay with their core players instead of re-building appears to be a justified conclusion. Although the ‘Canes have not been very consistent in recent years, the current team made a step into the right direction in 2008-09. Thus, the franchise’s front office announced today that center Tuomo Ruutu signed a three-year contract extension worth approximately $11 million. Last year, the forward from Finland scored 26 goals and 28 assists for a total of 54 points in 79 NHL games. Considering that Tuomo Ruutu is only 26 years old, he still has plenty of time to further improve and might turn out to be a steal for North Carolina. During his five years in the league he played for the Chicago Blackhawks before being traded to North Carolina in 2007-08. Ruutu appeared in 324 games and managed to put up 78 goals and 95 assists for a career total of 173 points. In 2008-09 he ranked second in scoring for the Hurricanes, only starting center Eric Staal had a more significant impact on North Carolina’s offense.
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