in 2009.Ruutu started out playing for
HIFK in the Finnish
SM-liiga in the 1999–2000 season, and moved to
Jokerit for the next two seasons. In 2002, he returned to HIFK for one more season. He was drafted by the
Chicago Blackhawks in the
2001 NHL entry draft, as their first-round pick, ninth overall. He then moved to North America in 2003, playing a full 82 games with the Blackhawks in the
2003–04 season. Ruutu did not play during the
2004–05 NHL lockout, opting to take the time to recover from injuries, but provided commentary on Finnish television during the
2005 IIHF World Championship, along with fellow Finnish NHLer
Ville Nieminen. Ruutu returned to the NHL after the lockout but his
2005–06 season was cut short, first by a back injury that kept him out of the game for most of the fall, then by an ankle injury sustained in January that required season-ending surgery. After an unimpressive showing at the
2006 IIHF World Championship, Ruutu contemplated retirement from playing professionally. However, this notion was put to rest when Ruutu signed a two-year, $3.75 million contract extension with Chicago on 13 September. During the
2007–08 season, on 26 February 2008, at the
NHL trade deadline, the Blackhawks traded Ruutu to the
Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for
Andrew Ladd. The Hurricanes promptly signed Ruutu to a one-year contract worth $2.25 million. On 23 July 2009, the Hurricanes signed Ruutu to a three-year, $11.4 million contract extension, paying $3 million in
2009–10, $4 million in
2010–11 and $4.4 million in
2011–12. On 22 February 2012, the Hurricanes signed Ruutu to a four-year contract extension worth $19 million. The deal paid Ruutu $4 million in
2012–13 and $5 million per year in the remaining years; it also included a no-trade clause for the first three years of the contract. Just hours before the end of the NHL trade deadline on 5 March 2014, Ruutu was traded to the
New Jersey Devils in exchange for centre
Andrei Loktionov. In the
2015–16 season, Ruutu could not stay healthy and tallied one assist in the final game of the season. Ruutu was not re-signed by the Devils once his contract expired, becoming an unrestricted free agent on 1 July 2016. After going through the summer unsigned, Ruutu agreed to a professional tryout with the
Vancouver Canucks on 13 September. On 11 October 2016, Canucks general manager
Jim Benning announced Ruutu had been released from his PTO contract. On 28 October 2016, Ruutu was signed by
HC Davos for the remainder of the
season as a replacement for the injured
Daniel Rahimi. He made his NLA debut on 11 November 2016 and scored his first goal that same day in a 3–2 loss in
Geneva against
Genève-Servette HC. ==International play==