The Carolina Hurricanes are in selling mode and the New Jersey Devils, only 2 points out of a wild card spot, are apparently buyers. The Hurricanes sent forward Tuomo Ruutu to the Devils for forward Andrei Loktionov, in what appears to be a salary dump of sorts, but roster players going either way.
Ruutu's name had surfaced a bit in trade rumours, despite still having some years left on his current deal, but he is the kind of player that the Devils could use in a playoff push and/or a playoff run and they didn't give up much to get him, so this could be a positive move in the end.
In Carolina this year, Ruutu has played 57 games, scoring 5 goals and 11 assists on an underwhelming Hurricanes team. Besides some scoring punch, albeit, not a lot, he will bring some of those fabled intangibles to the Devils.The Devils are not a high scoring team, having scored two less goals than the Hurricanes to this point in the season, so if we're looking for any sort of spike in Ruutu's scoring numbers, you may be waiting some time for that to happen. I suggest not holding your breath.
In the draft, Ruutu was Benson's 13th round pick, 289th overall and unfortunately, Ruutu ranks 390th overall in pool scoring. Despite being a late pick, he still hasn't been much of a bargain for Benson, nor is he expected to be going forward, which won't help his standing... 13th place, 31 points out of the prizes.
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