PENTICTON, B.C. – Before Tom Willander’s draft and Jonathan Lekkerimaki’s rocket launch and Arturs Silovs’ scene-stealing cameos on the big stage, Aatu Raty was briefly the Vancouver Canucks’ top prospect.
It is easy to forget how vital Raty seemed to the Canucks’ future when he was the human centrepiece of the return general manager Patrik Allvin generated in the January 2023 trade of Vancouver captain Bo Horvat to the New York Islanders.
Willander was drafted 11th overall that June, and then Lekkerimaki exploded upwards in the Swedish Hockey League last season while the Canucks were doing the same in the National Hockey League. Silovs, a sixth-round draft pick who became an unlikely national hero in Latvia’s bronze-medal charge at the 2023 world championships, started the Canucks’ final 10 playoff games last spring.
And Raty?
After splitting his first season in North America between the NHL and the American Hockey League in 2022-23, he spent all of last year in the minors quietly building his game. Raty had 18 goals and 52 points for the Abbotsford Canucks.
A prodigy in Finland, where he turned pro at 16 and made his country’s world junior team as a 17-year-old, Raty is still only 21. It merely feels like he has been around a long time and that his best-before date may already be approaching.
Forgetting about Aatu Raty would be foolish.
“One of the things he and I talked about right away when we acquired him was just don’t overthink,” Canucks assistant GM Ryan Johnson, who oversees player development and the minor-league team, said before the start of this weekend’s Young Stars tournament. “Just try to get some enjoyment here.
“When you’re traded at any point in your life, it’s tough. And he was traded in his first year in North America. A first-year pro and you come into a new organization … it was a lot. It was more or less trying to nurture him and support him and telling him how much we believed in him. He’s got so many tools to offer. We are going to see another big step forward for him.”
Raty and linemates Lekkerimaki and 23-year-old Arshdeep Bains dominated Friday night as Canuck prospects beat the Edmonton Oilers 2-0 at the tournament here in Penticton. Raty wore an ‘A’ as the first-line centre.
He is a far better player now than when the Canucks acquired him, and in an organization without much coming in the talent pipeline at centre, Raty remains a hugely important piece for them.
“So much progress, so much,” Raty said after Friday’s game. “I think if I can get my skating to that (NHL) level … puck handling, passing, shooting, the way I see the game, I think they’re all there. But skating is definitely something that I’ve improved on this summer. I feel I’ve made some huge steps. I’ve had some light-bulb moments. And I’m still 21; there’s so much time. And I think if I keep working like this, doing everything as well as I’m doing every day, it’s just a matter of time. Whether it be in a couple weeks or in a couple years, I’m going to be ready for it.”
Raty will be a player to watch when the Canucks open their main training camp here on Thursday.
Much of the context for the forward seems to have been cemented by his miserable draft-year season in 2020-21 when he scored just three times in 35 games for Karpat in Finland’s top professional league and plummeted to 52nd in the NHL draft a year after he was considered a potential first-overall pick.
But he had an outstanding draft-plus-one year at home, generating 40 points in 41 games for Jukurit as a teenager, and played so well after moving to North America the next season that the Islanders called him up to the NHL about one month after his 20th birthday — about a month before the blockbuster trade with the Canucks.
Raty is one of those players who does most things well but nothing spectacularly. He is six-foot-two, smart and strong. But his most outstanding traits may be his attitude and self-awareness. Whether he eventually makes the NHL as a centre or a winger, he understands the next step is predicated on improving his skating.
And he feels he unlocked a key to that this summer.
“I think we made some huge strides in the skating department,” he said. “It feels weird when you get that light-bulb moment, you think: How haven’t I been able to do this before? But, you know, better late than never.”
What changed?
“There’s a lot of things,” he explained. “A lot of body lean. My crossovers were horrible. I switched something in my blades. The specs are different in Finland, but (my blades) are sharper for the turns. In Europe, they have a lot of glide in their blades (for bigger ice surfaces). So I switched that a little bit, and it gave me more confidence to have the body lean required for those crossovers. If you look at those good players, they get the speed from crossovers and then they get the puck. If I can get my speed faster and kind of get through some guys, I think that’s going to be the difference.”
“It’s not a restructure,” Johnson added. “But if we can get a three- or five-per-cent gain in places, think about where his game is now and where it can go. He’s been dialled in on it and done the work on the ice and off the ice to make some changes. For all that he’s gone through … he just wants to do what he has to do to play in the NHL. That may sound easy, but it is hard to find those guys that are willing to buy in and do everything they can – and repetitiously do it. He’s one of those guys. He just wants to play in the NHL. That’s it.”
Considering he is starting his sixth pro season, Raty’s inclusion in what is essentially a development tournament was a little surprising.
Clearly, the Canucks wanted to give him a runway to build timing and momentum ahead of the main camp.
“To be honest, I definitely wanted to be here rather than not,” Raty said of the Young Stars. “You can’t get game experience … in practice. And I’m playing a little bit of a different role (as a leader). I started playing pro at 16, so I never really had an ‘A’ or a ‘C.’ It’s great to have experience and kind of work on the leadership role.
“I’ve had some hard moments in my career, but it’s just going to be so much harder (in the future). I’m sure of it. I’m just getting started, so I can’t be saying that I’ve been through everything. There’s some other things that I’m going to go through. But I do still think that I’m going to get a lot better.
“I’m so happy to be a professional hockey player, you know? I get to do this every day, get paid for doing what I love and still play at a high level. I’m so blessed.”
The Canucks hope they are, too.