What happened to Tuomo Ruutu?

[Beezeral]

spent too much time worried about his sister summer and her relationship with Jeff Skinner

 

[mattihp]

his best stretch as an NHLer was the end of his rookie season. from mid-february to the end of the year, he scored 14 goals and added 13 assists in 24 games.

Tuomo Ruutu 2003-04 Game Log | Hockey-Reference.com

that's a 48 goal, 44 assist, 92 point pace over a full season. keep in mind that he scored at that pace in 2004, a season where martin st. louis won the art ross with 94 points, and kovalchuk, nash, and iginla tied for the rocket with 41 goals.

then during the 2004 world cup, he did this in the gold medal game against canada--



kid was an absolute stud. oh, what could have been.

I didn't remember how much of a pond hockey tournament that world cup was. Peewee defense!

 

[ijk]

Could one consider Tuomo Ruutu to be the best Finnish NHL player at hitting? I know this is hard to measure in any way, but I remember him being a tenacious hitter at the start of his stint in Carolina.

Finland hasn’t that many players that like to hit hard and often. Besides Jarkko Ruutu, Ristolainen and Tuomo I can’t come up with many examples who had the speed and willingness to hit. Maybe Laine, I guess.

I appreciate if others can come up with better examples.

 

[Esko6]

Could one consider Tuomo Ruutu to be the best Finnish NHL player at hitting? I know this is hard to measure in any way, but I remember him being a tenacious hitter at the start of his stint in Carolina.

Finland hasn’t that many players that like to hit hard and often. Besides Jarkko Ruutu, Ristolainen and Tuomo I can’t come up with many examples who had the speed and willingness to hit. Maybe Laine, I guess.

I appreciate if others can come up with better examples.

Ancient history, but Tikkanen. Maybe he was more a pest who would abuse the opposition until they hit him rather than a hitter.

 

[JabbaJabba]

Could one consider Tuomo Ruutu to be the best Finnish NHL player at hitting? I know this is hard to measure in any way, but I remember him being a tenacious hitter at the start of his stint in Carolina.

Finland hasn’t that many players that like to hit hard and often. Besides Jarkko Ruutu, Ristolainen and Tuomo I can’t come up with many examples who had the speed and willingness to hit. Maybe Laine, I guess.

I appreciate if others can come up with better examples.

Komarov hits like a truck, or at least used to.

 

[egelband]

I heard he turned to god & changed his name.

He's now Christian Ruutu.

Fonzi, puhleeeeeez!

 

[boyko10]

Could one consider Tuomo Ruutu to be the best Finnish NHL player at hitting? I know this is hard to measure in any way, but I remember him being a tenacious hitter at the start of his stint in Carolina.

Finland hasn’t that many players that like to hit hard and often. Besides Jarkko Ruutu, Ristolainen and Tuomo I can’t come up with many examples who had the speed and willingness to hit. Maybe Laine, I guess.

I appreciate if others can come up with better examples.

Toni Lydman.. Though he adapted a more cautious style pretty early on in his nhl career, mostly due to being injury prone and conscious about it. But in his early junior and liiga days he was an outstanding hitter.

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

He was really painful to watch in his final NHL season in 15-16.

He was one of the slowest players I had ever saw that season. And he didn't score a point until the second to last period of the season. He did only play 33 games or something, but they were 33 painful games to watch.

Didn't even read the OP before making the post. Thought this was more about what happened to him recently and why he isn't playing anymore, and not why he didn't live up to his prospect hype in his career.

I don't know why you are whining in here but just an notice to you.
Tuomo Ruutu played 735 regular season games in NHL and he scored 346 points.
I don't know about you and your standards to evaluate NHL players but in my opinion that's OK NHL career.