Accessing Aatu Räty’s First Game with the Canucks

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The Vancouver Canucks let their top prospect, Aatu Räty, play in his first game for the Canucks in last night’s comeback overtime win against the St Louis Blues.

The Canucks were down 2-0 at the start of the 3rd period, but stormed back to tie the game with 29 seconds left to go. The Canucks would eventually win the game in overtime, completing the comeback in the process. The goal was Pettersson’s 28th goal of the season and his 75th point of the year. He’s crushing his career high of 68 points in 80 games; he currently has 75 points in 56 games.

But let’s talk about Aatu Räty. He played his first game for the Canucks last night and was scoreless in terms of points. The Canucks acquired the rookie forward in a big trade with the New York Islanders almost a month ago. The trade sent Räty, Anthony Beauvillier, and a 2023 protected 1st-round pick from the Islanders to the Canucks in exchange for former Canucks’ captain Bo Horvat.

Räty played 7 minutes and 37 seconds in last night’s game and only had 1 hit registered on the stat sheet. Should Canucks fans be worried about the production? Absolutely not. The Canucks played Räty on the 4th line and only gave him less than 8-minutes of playing time in the entire game. It’s difficult to do anything while only playing for around 2-3 minutes per period.

In comparison, his linemates in yesterday’s game were Sheldon Dries and Vasily Podkolzin. Dries played 9 minutes and 54 seconds, while Podkolzin played 10 minutes and 40 seconds. So Räty played less than them, but both Dries and Podkolzin had some power-play time, while Räty had none.

The Canucks haven’t confirmed yet if Räty will play again tomorrow against the top NHL team Boston Bruins. 

Canuck fans shouldn’t stress or give up on Räty so early. He’s only 20 years old and has only played 13 games in the NHL so far. It’s way too early to give up on the highly-touted prospect after 13 games. As long as the Canucks develop him properly and don’t give up on him so early, he can be a legitimate top 6 forward for the Canucks for years to come.

Patience is a virtue, and while Canucks fans have waited long enough for a contending team, let’s hope we only need to wait a couple more years for this team to be a legitimate contender for the playoffs.

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