Confirmed with Link: Ruutu out for hip surgery

[Caniac125330]

Well this isn't good. http://blogs.newsobserver.com/canes/ruutu-forced-to-undergo-hip-surgery

Click to read more...

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

kill him

 

[Gr8Dan]

Another slot opens for the Charlotte prospects...

 

[Anton Babchuk]

What a terrible contract. And don't tell me "hindsight". Everyone knew that this would happen at some point. He's made of glass. It looks like my 35 points a season prediction was sadly optimistic.

 

[DaleCooper]

Did TheBigKahuna's post force the team to announce this? Odd timing.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

What a terrible contract. And don't tell me "hindsight". Everyone knew that this would happen at some point. He's made of glass. It looks like my 35 points a season prediction was sadly optimistic.

Look on the bright side. With the lockout and his surgery, it means 25% of that contract is already done. Only 3 years left.

 

[Anton Babchuk]

Getting injured and not playing hockey for a year and a half is going to make Ruutu even slower than before. He's going to be like Rod Brind'amour circa 2010, only worse defensively.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Getting injured and not playing hockey for a year and a half is going to make Ruutu even slower than before. He's going to be like Rod Brind'amour circa 2010, only worse defensively.

Just gotta hope for that amnesty clause in the new CBA, gotta think JR's gonna be pushing that one pretty hard now.

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

Getting rid of Ruutu will hurt our chances of landing Mikko Koivu at the deadline. They are BFFF's (Best Finnish Friends Forever) IIRC

 

[Novacane]

So is it better to stack a combination of E Staal, J Staal, Semin, Skinner, Jokinen, Tlusty, Larose(?) in the top 6 or still try to spread the talent around? Without Ruutu, our top 6 is VERY soft outside of the Staals.

 

[Vagrant]

Just gotta hope for that amnesty clause in the new CBA, gotta think JR's gonna be pushing that one pretty hard now.

I highly doubt they amnesty Ruutu. I bet a few teams would claim him on waivers, which means he has value. I really feel like he's been undersold around here. He's a game changer when he's healthy and yes I do realize that is the problem.

 

[bleedgreen]

He's been hurting since August and has surgery now? When it's obvious this is all coming to an end one way or another? Why not 4 months ago? Rutherford sounds like this caught him off guard. He can't be happy at all. We were looking kinda stacked.

 

[Sens1Canes2]

He's been hurting since August and has surgery now? When it's obvious this is all coming to an end one way or another? Why not 4 months ago? Rutherford sounds like this caught him off guard. He can't be happy at all. We were looking kinda stacked.

Maybe he slipped and fell. Maybe he tweaked it and had it looked at and realized it was serious? We shouldn't assume he just "put it off" til now like he didn't care...

 

[Anton Babchuk]

More likely is that JR told him to wait and let it heal itself...and then it didn't, so now he's having surgery.

This is completely baseless speculation, but I'm going to treat it as fact.

 

[bleedgreen]

Maybe he slipped and fell. Maybe he tweaked it and had it looked at and realized it was serious? We shouldn't assume he just "put it off" til now like he didn't care...

hes been rehabbing it since august, per rutherford. they don't know how he hurt it, he passed his physical before the off season. do the canes pay for it if it happens off season and during a lockout? wonder if him being locked out played a role.

im not saying he put it off intentionally, we don't know anything obviously, but this seems to be horrible timing for something that has been going on for six months. i doubt rutherford wouldve ever told him to put it off.

 

[Swag Surf Aho]

Once again, stubbornness has taken a toll for this team. Aside from Ruutu's indecision to immediately act on his injury, JR's to blame by trying to control his fate. By no means am I inferring that JR injured Ruutu, but his stupidity has cost us. Rather than forgiving himself, he tries to compensate the loss of Cole through another grinder/sniper in Ruutu. Same with his impatience in the JJ saga where he downgrades to Gleason rather than waiting another couple years. Just to imagine that we couldve had JStaal and Sutter barring Gleason and an injured Ruutu is disappointing. (Pittsburgh wanted Ladd and Johnson prior to Sutter, Dumoulin, and 8th for Staal IIRC)

 

[AhoLottaLove]

Once again, stubbornness has taken a toll for this team. Aside from Ruutu's indecision to immediately act on his injury, JR's to blame by trying to control his fate. By no means am I inferring that JR injured Ruutu, but his stupidity has cost us. Rather than forgiving himself, he tries to compensate the loss of Cole through another grinder/sniper in Ruutu. Same with his impatience in the JJ saga where he downgrades to Gleason rather than waiting another couple years. Just to imagine that we couldve had JStaal and Sutter barring Gleason and an injured Ruutu is disappointing. (Pittsburgh wanted Ladd and Johnson prior to Sutter, Dumoulin, and 8th for Staal IIRC)

Do you know what they say about hindsight?

 

[Swag Surf Aho]

Do you know what they say about hindsight?

No, but JR shouldn't have traded Johnson for Belanger and Gleason, and signed Ruutu to a 4 year, 20 million dollar deal with NMC

 

[Anton Babchuk]

Do you know what they say about hindsight?

Lots of people were saying the same thing when it happened. How about Jim Rutherford uses some foresight for once? Like figuring out that a guy made out of glass who skates like Craig Adams and scored a whopping 34 points might not be the best player to sign for $4.75M/yr long term, regardless of what physicality he may bring once every five games when he actually is in the lineup.

 

[vwg*]

Ruutu will be just as effective from the pressbox rehabbing his injury as he is on the ice 90% of the time. He has a lot of skill and intensity but he has a single digit hockey IQ and is made of glass. Might as well buy him out ASAP unless we want a worthless prospect and/or pick for him.

 

[Brock Anton]

Would have loved a 1st round pick.

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

Lots of people were saying the same thing when it happened. How about Jim Rutherford uses some foresight for once? Like figuring out that a guy made out of glass who skates like Craig Adams and scored a whopping 34 points might not be the best player to sign for $4.75M/yr long term, regardless of what physicality he may bring once every five games when he actually is in the lineup.

If JR knew he was going to end up with Semin and J. Staal, it's doubtful that he signs Ruutu for that much (as you correctly pointed out a while back).

If we don't get Semin and Staal, and end up losing Ruutu to free agency, then there is a slight chance we don't have the best season ticket sales ever.

 

[Anton Babchuk]

If the Hurricanes had merely signed Ruutu and not acquired Staal/Semin, they wouldn't have the best season ticket sales ever either. Most fans were generally happy that Ruutu was re-signed, but they still recognized the need for significant improvements. Note the utter panic when all JR did for the first three weeks of free agency was sign Corvo.

If JR had traded Ruutu for a 1st/prospect/whatever and struck out in the offseason, the worst case scenario is him being left with no Ruutu and no Staal/Semin. Is that really that much of a downgrade of having Ruutu and still no Staal/Semin? Either way you have an atrocious forward group; Ruutu really doesn't bring a significant upgrade to the lineup, which is why he is not worth his salary even when healthy. And his reputation among fans is nowhere close to where it used to be, even amongst the PNC NASCAR fan brigade. He's no Chad, whose smile alone attracts at least 5,000 middle-aged women per game.

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

On the contrary: having Ruutu out of the lineup opens up for Boychuk/Dalpe/Welsh to not only get high(er) quality minutes, but get them playing with someone who is, in fact productive. Ruutu does not bring much to our lineup anymore.

Who was it that went through the 17 goals Ruutu scored this year? I remember that out of those 17, around 15 came when we were either down by 2 or up by 2- in effect, they had no consequence on a game that was already decided.

We had the best season ticket sales ever directly because of Semin, J. Staal and Kirk Muller. The point is that, when JR signed Ruutu, he had neither Semin nor J. Staal, and was looking at a FA market where players like Ray Whitney can get 4.5 million a year, you need talent. If for nothing else to maintain the perception of competence.


Now that we have 5 forwards who are clearly better than him (along with Tlusty making a strong case as a porn crazed version of David Krejci), the contract looks horrible. But when he was signed, who did we have? E. Staal, Jokinen in a slump and a concussed Skinner.

Point being, JR's hands were tied. At that point, it was either Ruutu or no one, and while I do not think highly of Ruutu's hockey skills, I can not begrudge JR for signing.

 

[TheBigKahuna]

Did TheBigKahuna's post force the team to announce this? Odd timing.

The team didn't announce it. A "source" told someone at ESPN.

Wasn't me.

But it wasn't going to be a "secret" for long.