Devils' Ruutu on fresh start: 'It's been a couple of bad seasons, but they've been forgotten'

Coming off of a couple of down seasons, New Jersey Devils forward Tuomo Ruutu is eager for a fresh start in Newark.

The gritty 31-year-old forward is skilled, tough and versatile, but his production has fallen off a cliff since he signed a lucrative 4-year, $19-million contract extension during the 2011-12 campaign.

"It's been a couple of bad season, but they have been forgotten," Ruutu told Finnish newspaper Ilta Sanomat (via Google translate). "Now (I have) new challenges and new objectives (going) forward, I do not like to think about the (past)."

While the veteran forward and Finnish Olympian remains an excellent play-driving forward, he's been injury prone and unproductive since his extension kicked in following the 2012-13 NHL lockout.

Over the past two seasons, Ruutu has appeared in just 93 games and has managed a total of 12 goals and 43 points. His stock around the league had fallen to the point where the Carolina Hurricanes had to retain 20% of his salary in order to facilitate the trade with the Devils, per capgeek.com.

Despite his lack of production, Ruutu's clubs have successfully controlled play when he's on the ice. The problem? With Ruutu on the ice at five-on-five over the past two seasons, the Hurricanes and Devils converted just 6.92 percent of their shots.

Ruutu's clubs have generally shot an elevated percentage when he's on the ice, so he could be poised for a major bounce back offensively with the Devils (although the Devils have sustained an extraordinarily low shooting percentage for several seasons in a row now).

For now, he's just eager to play for an organization with a rich winning tradition.

"There are lots of traditions," said Ruutu. "The team has done this job for some time, and with great success. The Stanley Cup banners (hanging) from the ceiling (aren't) there just by chance."

[Stats in this piece courtesy stats.hockeyanalysis.com]