In light of widespread interest in Tuomo Ruutu, Carolina Hurricanes to begin negotiations -NHL Update
As latest reports stated that a number of teams were looking to begin talks with Carolina Hurricanes’ veteran centre player, Tuomo Ruutu, team general manager, Jim Rutherford, expressed his desire to keep him on the team and stated that he would begin negotiations
with the player.
GM Rutherford stated his views while giving an interview to ESPN.com on Thursday, February 9, 2012, and added that it would be a top priority for the team now as they did not want to trade him.
"So our priority now is to try and re-sign him," Rutherford told ESPN.com.
At the moment, Ruutu is in the final season of his three-year contract, which is worth an estimated $11.4 million signed back before the 2009-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season.
At the end of this season, Ruutu is set to become an unrestricted free agent later on in the summer, which would obviously put more pressure on the team in re-signing him.
One thing which has given GM Rutherford hope is knowing that Ruutu has also expressed wanting to stay with the Carolina Hurricanes, but negotiating is the next and most important step.
"These meetings are to see where the player is at, what they think of the team, whether he likes being in the organization, those things," Rutherford said. "Tuomo is a player we really like, and he said he likes being with the team. That's an important first
step and we had a good meeting.”
Despite not wanting to trade the player, Rutherford did not deny having had talks with other teams on the topic and if the team and Ruutu wind up in the worst case scenario, which would be him not wanting to re-sign, Carolina would have no other option other
than to exchange players with another team.
Tuomo Ruutu was picked up by Chicago Blackhawks as the ninth overall pick during round-one of the 2001 NHL Entry Draft.
He is currently in his fifth straight season with Carolina Hurricanes.
Expectations are that GM Rutherford will try his best at signing the player before the February 27 trade deadline, but if not, it is most likely that Ruutu would be traded off.
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