What to expect from new Canucks prospect Aatu Räty

When the Vancouver Canucks executed the Bo Horvat trade, one of the most prominent question marks of the return was centred around the prospect that the New York Islanders included in the deal: Aatu Räty.

To understand the nuance behind the player, you have to know his backstory.  

Räty has one of the more interesting paths when it comes to 20-year-old prospects.

Lauded for his potential to be a top pick for the 2021 NHL Entry draft, there was legitimate talk in 2019, when Räty was only 16 years old, that he could be not only a top-10 selection but even a potential top-five pick. 

After a disappointing draft year, Räty struggled to produce at the Liiga level, eventually going to the Islanders at the 52nd pick of the draft. What happened next, proved that placement was probably undervalued. 

In his draft-plus-one season, after a loan to Jukurit, Räty exploded for 40 points in 41 games, good for 14th in league scoring. Fast forward to the present day, and the centre prospect has already made the jump to North American hockey, showing well in both American Hockey League and National Hockey League play. 

While Räty may have not completely reignited his previous pedigree, it’s clear that he is already outperforming his draft placement, and with that has considerably bolstered his NHL projection. 

Why is he such a dangerous shooter?

Räty’s shooting is going to be the first tool you hear about from most prospect analysts — it’s for good reason, too. The Oulu-born forward fully leverages his 6’2″ frame to push ridiculous power through his release. Räty’s chest and upper body are always placed over the puck, relying more on his upper body strength, allowing him to rip pucks from a distance, at the cost of execution speed. Because of this, he has adapted his game to find more open ice. 

Going through his tape for the 2022-2023 season, it’s clear that Räty pushes a significant amount of inside habits, meaning he likes to move the pucks off the wall and into the middle of the ice. In general, this is always seen as a positive because most scoring chances occur in the slot. He heavily relies on his linemates to drive back defenders, to allow more runway to execute his release. 

By virtue of this, Räty is a much more dangerous shooting threat when he is off-puck and his teammates do the heavy lifting in transition. This allows the Finn to set his arms to shoot proactively and shift into weakside options in open passing lanes.

Funny enough, this is the same case in sustained pressure; Räty can better leverage his shooting by being a pass supporter, rather than creating advantages himself. He times his activations into space incredibly well. 

This essentially means that the U20 World Junior Silver Medalist almost always has to be cognizant of creating space for his shot. When he doesn’t, he’s an easy target to be checked. 

Räty’s decisions with the puck

Where the former Kärpät-product adds dimension to his game is through his playmaking. 

 

While Räty is very much a shoot-first player, who tunnels into shooting on a frequent basis, he has some legitimate playmaking ability. Just like when he shoots in transition, Räty still works to the inside of the ice, looking to capture opposing defenders’ attention, only to work pucks back out to the wings, where his teammates can operate with more space. He manipulates goaltenders with the threat of his shot, baiting sticks out of passing lanes, and he can layer pucks out of pressure.  

When set up in the offensive zone, Räty funnels to the inside and uses his peripheral vision well to find hard-to-see targets. Even more recently, he’s started to work more give-and-go passing sequences to open up more shooting opportunities. He’s not the fleetest of foot, so creating advantages by any means necessary is important to his projectability. 

How Raty’s processing aids him on the defensive end of the ice

Räty impacts the ice defensively on a consistent basis. In open space and along the perimeter, the new Canucks prospect pressures and hunts defenders to disrupt their breakouts, create turnovers and counterattack. He loads his stick proactively, anticipates the next play, and ups his pace to overwhelm puck carriers. 

The same anticipation has allowed Räty to put forth respectable defensive efforts on the North American ice surface. He is aggressive in taking out secondary threats, reads subsequent passes to better jump into lanes, supports the breakout by helping win battles on the perimeter of the ice, and angles off attackers on the backcheck.

What should we expect of him in the future? 

The caveat that looms over Räty’s game is his skating inefficiencies. It’s a very undeveloped tool when compared to the rest of his game.

The issues start to pile up when put under a microscope. Wide recoveries lead to shorter push-offs, uncontrolled heel kicks from an extreme toe flick as he tries to leverage as much push-off power as possible, and bouncing shoulders in the crossovers just kill any acceleration value. 

Improving his skating would go a long way to expanding his game, allowing him to leverage his handling and passing to an even greater level to create more advantages.

Unfortunately, a lot of these habits can be very ingrained for players, and drastic stride improvements, like Bo Horvat’s, are more of an exception, rather than the norm. Regardless, any improvement is worthwhile in the long run, even if it means eliminating just one or two inefficiencies. During an Abbotsford Canucks postgame, Räty acknowledged the issue.

“I feel I know my strengths and my weaknesses. I think I need to get better at skating and need to work on my all-around game. If you play in the NHL, you can’t have huge holes in your game,” he said.

Räty has the tools and habits to be a centre prospect for the Canucks — potentially even a second-line option down the road. The playmaking, defensive habits, and forechecking are all here — requirements to play the position.

It’s hard to say how much of a hurdle his stride will be to reach that ceiling in the long run — it may be more worth it to keep expanding on his other plus tools, settling into a winger role with the Canucks. Regardless, Räty is a nice injection to a Canucks prospect pool that needed bolstering. 

"That was great, almost a full barn, there was a lot of noise out there."

Aatu Räty addressed the media following Abbotsford's 4-0 victory over Tucson on Friday night. pic.twitter.com/cQHMfPic4B

— Abbotsford Canucks (@abbycanucks) February 11, 2023

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