Ovechkin or Ruutu this year ???

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triggrman

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Ruutu has to be one of the most underrated prospects. His skill and physical play are a deadly combination. His open ice hits are some of the best in the league and he's fearless.

I'd take Ruutu.....
 

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I'll pick Tuomo ruutu,but in future ovechkin will be better, but not next year.
are we talking about Jarkko ruutu ? Then i maybe pick Ovechkin..
 

Birko19

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Ruutu should be a solid pick for this year in the overall play, but I'll say this once and not look back at it, if Ovechkin settles in the NHL game early he will outscore Ruutu in points and goals by the end of the season, I'm not saying he will play better overall, but will outscore him.
 

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Birko19 said:
Ruutu should be a solid pick for this year in the overall play, but I'll say this once and not look back at it, if Ovechkin settles in the NHL game early he will outscore Ruutu in points and goals by the end of the season, I'm not saying he will play better overall, but will outscore him.

Are you aware that when Ruutu was finally given icetime and was playing with scoring line talent he averaged over a PPG over the last 30 games of last year? I expect that Ruutu will end up with approx 65-70 pts this season, and I'm usually pretty conservative when making these types of guesstimates.

I just can't see AO coming over and getting anywhere near that level of production, especially on a WASH team that lacks proven scoring line players to help bring AO along. If AO gets to 50 points, I would be very pleasantly surprised as a Cap fan.

AO might have a higher offensive ceiling, but I can't see him surpassing Ruutu's production this year, especially when you look at the guys they will be playing with.
 

Kafka

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I expect Ruutu to have far more points than Ovesh. if he can stay healty... this guy as too much talent and will now be 23... I hope he plays with Dazé this year, but I will try to pick him in my pool for sure!
 

salty justice

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This will be the first time Ruutu is fully healed from his knee problems in the last few years. Playing with Daze and Arnason on the first line under Yawney for the whole year as opposed to the 4th line with Moen and Nichol under Sputter for a large chunk of last season will make all the difference in the world. The 70 point range is a reasonable prediction.

Ovechkin is going to take time to get use to NA hockey and crappy linemates. Zherdev went through the same process and they are comparable players. 40-50 points will be a good year for him.
 

Chimaera

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I think it's going to be a lot closer than some suggest.


I think it should be comparable. Ovechkin's not playing with complete trash, and he's definitely going to be the main option on the powerplay, which is a double edged sword. If Semin comes over and plays on the Second Line, I think Ovechkin will actually get a decent amount of scoring opportunites (or Semin will) and might score more points than expected.


I'd say Ruutu in the high 60's, and Ovechkin 50's. Pending on how the changes in scoring/interference play out the numbers could be inflated.

I'd also like to note that I'm not certain Ruutu will play a full season either. While either player could have an injury problem, it will all work out on it's own.
 

Birko19

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Beukeboom Fan said:
Are you aware that when Ruutu was finally given icetime and was playing with scoring line talent he averaged over a PPG over the last 30 games of last year? I expect that Ruutu will end up with approx 65-70 pts this season, and I'm usually pretty conservative when making these types of guesstimates.

I just can't see AO coming over and getting anywhere near that level of production, especially on a WASH team that lacks proven scoring line players to help bring AO along. If AO gets to 50 points, I would be very pleasantly surprised as a Cap fan.

AO might have a higher offensive ceiling, but I can't see him surpassing Ruutu's production this year, especially when you look at the guys they will be playing with.

Assuming Ovechkin plays on the top line plus the top PP minutes, also assuming he settles into the NHL style very early I will expect him to perhaps pass Ruutu in terms of production, sure Ruutu was great last season in the second half but that does't mean he's gonna pull this through for the whole season.

Chances are Ruutu will score between 60-70 points and Ovechkin between 50-60 points, but Ovechkin passing Ruutu in points and goals is not out of reach, I don't see a Ruutu blowout as some people make it out to be, I guess it all depends on how early Ovechkin will settle in the NHL.
 

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Birko19 said:
Assuming Ovechkin plays on the top line plus the top PP minutes, also assuming he settles into the NHL style very early I will expect him to perhaps pass Ruutu in terms of production, sure Ruutu was great last season in the second half but that does't mean he's gonna pull this through for the whole season.

Chances are Ruutu will score between 60-70 points and Ovechkin between 50-60 points, but Ovechkin passing Ruutu in points and goals is not out of reach, I don't see a Ruutu blowout as some people make it out to be, I guess it all depends on how early Ovechkin will settle in the NHL.

Fair point, although the DET-CHI probably has something to do with your opinion as well. I know I never give the Wings prospects a fair shake when it comes to their evaluations.

I think that if you look at AO's linemates, it's really hard to project him to 60 points (which is about the minimum that TR will be at if healthy IMO).

Trying to keep the hype to a minimum - TR played absolutely great last year when playing with guys that have some offensive ability. He was handcuffed his first 50 games playing with guys that would struggle in the AHL offensively. I think that AO will likely be in that same boat this year in WASH. There will be a lot of young guys, and there won't be that much veteran talent to help mentor them.
 

EroCaps

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theBob said:
This will be the first time Ruutu is fully healed from his knee problems in the last few years. Playing with Daze and Arnason on the first line under Yawney for the whole year as opposed to the 4th line with Moen and Nichol under Sputter for a large chunk of last season will make all the difference in the world. The 70 point range is a reasonable prediction.

Ovechkin is going to take time to get use to NA hockey and crappy linemates. Zherdev went through the same process and they are comparable players. 40-50 points will be a good year for him.

Ovechkin and Zherdev aren't comparible players. Ovechkin is physical. In fact, 1v1, Ovechkin destroyed Ruutu open ice. His linemates aren't crappy either, they just aren't elite top line talents. Semin, Zubrus, Cassels, Halpern, wildcard Sykora.

IMO Ovechkin will benefit from being the go-to guy and put up better #s than most expect.
 

salty justice

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^You are correct, Zherdev was better offensively in Russia than Oveckin and has better linemates in the NHL, so I guess we should expect even less production from AO. ;)
 

triggrman

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EroCaps said:
Ovechkin and Zherdev aren't comparible players. Ovechkin is physical. In fact, 1v1, Ovechkin destroyed Ruutu open ice. His linemates aren't crappy either, they just aren't elite top line talents. Semin, Zubrus, Cassels, Halpern, wildcard Sykora.

IMO Ovechkin will benefit from being the go-to guy and put up better #s than most expect.
If Ovechkin is more physical than Ruutu then I can't wait to see him play. I've not seen rookie as physical as Ruutu, maybe in the games against us, Tootoo fired him up, but he's about as physical a rookie as I've seen.
 

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EroCaps said:
Ovechkin is physical. In fact, 1v1, Ovechkin destroyed Ruutu open ice.

Have you seen Ruutu hit? He's a Finnish Freight Train.

He's got at least 82 huge hits cause he leveled minimum 1 player per game last year.

He looks for people to smash.

http://www.chicagoblackhawks.com/multimedia/

Click on "Tuomo Ruutu Highlight Reel" and watch the 2nd hit

Points wise i think Ruutu has AO beat by about 10-15 next year. Ruutu will play with Daze and Arnason.

AO could play with Cassels/Halpern, Zubrus/Matt Bradley?

There's not a lot of fire power in washington this year.
 

EroCaps

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triggrman said:
If Ovechkin is more physical than Ruutu then I can't wait to see him play. I've not seen rookie as physical as Ruutu, maybe in the games against us, Tootoo fired him up, but he's about as physical a rookie as I've seen.

Ruutu is great. I wouldn't put Ovechkin on par w/him in terms of physicality, but he can go over you if need be and has made his share of big hits against quality players.
 

Oil_slick9416*

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EroCaps said:
Ruutu is great. I wouldn't put Ovechkin on par w/him in terms of physicality, but he can go over you if need be and has made his share of big hits against quality players.

but yet completely fell apart when he was pressured and checked by team canada in the WJC. the checkers in the NHL are far better then anything he's faced in Russia and WJC, so we'll see... and Ruutu is Vastly Underrated he's a physically force, i mean come on, the Kid goes crazy with hits and physical play.. and receives what he dishes out too, and playd all 82 games
 

EroCaps

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Oil_slick9416 said:
but yet completely fell apart when he was pressured and checked by team canada in the WJC. the checkers in the NHL are far better then anything he's faced in Russia and WJC, so we'll see... and Ruutu is Vastly Underrated he's a physically force, i mean come on, the Kid goes crazy with hits and physical play.. and receives what he dishes out too, and playd all 82 games

That tired, lame old criticism. Ovechkin didn't "completely fall apart". He was injured and missed significant time in the RSL. He then went on to lead his Men's National Team in scoring and GWGs. He's a physical player who doesn't shy away from contact. To question either of these guy's toughness shows ignorance or total bias IMO.
 

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Oil_slick9416 said:
but yet completely fell apart when he was pressured and checked by team canada in the WJC. the checkers in the NHL are far better then anything he's faced in Russia and WJC, so we'll see... and Ruutu is Vastly Underrated he's a physically force, i mean come on, the Kid goes crazy with hits and physical play.. and receives what he dishes out too, and playd all 82 games

So say he wasn't injured and completely fell apart against competition inferior to NHLers. It was ONE GAME. He was great the rest of the tourny and as Erocaps stated he did have a very good performance on the Russian national team. This is coming from someone who has Ruutu in his avatar so it's not some sort of biased Ovechkin love fest on my end.

Back to the actual question at hand, Ruutu vs Ovechkin this upcoming season. I'd go with Ruutu, not to slight Ovechkin's skill. Ruutu has better line mates (Arnason, Daze vs Cassels, Zubrus) that he has proven chemistry with. I pretty much agree with Birko19, Ruutu with 60-70, Ovechkin with 50-60.
 

espo*

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EroCaps said:
Ruutu is great. I wouldn't put Ovechkin on par w/him in terms of physicality, but he can go over you if need be and has made his share of big hits against quality players.
I would,i'd say he's meaner and definately tougher then Ovechkin too.Ruttu's a real lion out there.
 
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