Feeling like 'a whole new person,' Canucks' Raty is ready for the spotlight

PENTICTON – To view the Vancouver Canucks’ best prospects, you must travel a little farther east than Penticton.

First-round picks from the last two National Hockey League drafts, winger Jonathan Lekkerimaki has started his season in the Swedish Hockey League and defenceman Tom Willander is preparing for a freshman year at Boston University.

Their absence from British Columbia leaves an even brighter spotlight this season on Canuck prospect Aatu Raty, the key acquisition from last season’s trade of Bo Horvat to the New York Islanders.

Projected to eventually become the Canucks’ third-line centre – and this is considered the NHL floor for Raty, not his ceiling — the Finn is accustomed to a blinding glare. 

But the 20-year-old is probably better equipped mentally and emotionally to handle that pressure now than during his 2020-21 draft season, which saw him plummet to the Islanders with the 52^nd pick one year after he was touted as a potential first-overall selection.

“Getting traded wasn't a bad thing,” Raty said Friday before the Canucks opened their Young Stars tournament here against Calgary Flames prospects. “I did good stuff in New York. Still, it wasn't easy.  I think it's good to know that I can get through that stuff and just get back stronger every time. But let's not make this too dramatic. I mean, I've been playing pro hockey for four years now, living my dream. So it's been great.

“It's good to know that you can get through that stuff. I feel like every year in my career, I've had something, whether it be when I was in Finland struggling to get minutes as a pro, then getting traded there, then having a great year but not making the national team, then coming here and getting traded.”

Raty played in Finland’s top-division Liiga as a 16-year-old and in the Under-20 world junior tournament at age 17, before struggling through his draft season in his hometown of Oulu, scoring just three times in 35 games for Karpat.

A trade to Jukurit, where he had 40 points in 41 Liiga games two years ago, seemed to re-ignite Raty, who moved to North America last season and did well enough for New York’s farm team that he was recalled by the Islanders on Dec. 23. Twelve games later, he was packaged to the Canucks.

“We believe that he is a full-time NHL player,” Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin said Friday. “But when will he become a full-time NHL player? That's something that we're going to monitor here and let him tell us when he's ready to go. I definitely don't want to force him. He showed that he's capable of playing games in the National Hockey League. The next step is to get him so he doesn't have to go back down to the minors.”

Including Finland’s world junior team last summer, Raty played 75 games for five different teams last season, which is why stability and continuity are seen as paramount to his development this season. Raty finished last year with the American Hockey League’s Abbotsford Canucks, but also with a back injury that required time and treatment after the season.

“A little adversity,” Abbotsford coach Jeremy Colliton, who is running the Canucks’ prospects team here, said of Raty’s season. “New team, new organization, big expectations. I like how he's coming in here to this camp. He looks a little leaner, a little quicker.

“I think for any young player, (continuity) gets some runway to build habits and a base of your game so that when you face adversity, you can kind of lean on that. It's really important. That'll be a focus for us that starts now.”

Raty said the hardest thing for him about the off-season is resting. During his tumultuous draft season, Karpat coaches staged a kind of intervention because they felt Raty was over-conditioning, tiring himself out before games.

“(Last year) was a tough season physically, mentally,” Raty said. “It was the perfect amount of time in the summer to reload and then be really hungry to get back to the game.

“I'm feeling like a whole new person. I had some injuries at the end of the year and got through them. The body's feeling a lot better. I’m feeling a lot better mentally.”

Raty said his off-season training focus was getting stronger and more agile on his skates. His skating has long been viewed as the weakest part of what is otherwise a well-rounded, NHL-style game.

“Just getting straight-line speed is something that you've just got to get stronger, just be more efficient,” he said. “But I found a lot of things, like turning backwards, turning forwards, doing cutbacks, that doesn't really show in the straight-line speed. But I found a lot of flaws. I was always thinking straight-line speed and how could I get better at skating forward. But there's a lot of other skating in the game, too. 

“My overall skating, for sure, is a lot better. Straight-line speed will be there. I'm still young.”

It’s actually hard to believe, as long as Raty has been on hockey’s radar and its professional leagues, that he doesn’t turn 21 until Nov. 14.

He knows there is opportunity for centres in Vancouver this season, behind Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller, and beyond. Free-agent depth centres Teddy Blueger and Pius Suter signed for just one and two years, respectively.

“Once you're good enough, you're going to make the team,” Raty said. “I think over here, you can't play well and not have somebody notice you. It doesn't matter where I'll be playing. Playing my hardest and trying to get better every day -- I think that's just the key. 

“The thing is, it's not my call. I can have the best rookie tournament, I can have the best training camp, I can play the best hockey I can play and then go to the American Hockey League. But I'll be playing good hockey and I could be getting a lot of minutes and I'll be happy. It's everything to do with me but then nothing to do with me at the same time. If I'm there in Abbotsford, it's going to be the right choice. The season is so long, wherever I start. . . it could be where I finish or it could be something else. Things happen.”

ICE CHIP – Young Stars alumnus Quinn Hughes, who was named Canucks captain last week, was in the Okanagan Friday to visit and support West Kelowna firefighters who were part of the front lines this summer trying to protect the community against record wildfires. Hughes, who spoke of his grandfather’s service as a fireman in New York City, presented on behalf of the Canucks For Kids Fund a cheque of $250,000 to the Canadian Red Cross B.C. Wildfire Appeal.

• The Canucks prospects dominated their Flames counterparts on Friday night, winning 7-1 at the South Okanagan Events Centre. Cole McWard and Aidan McDonough, who logged NHL games for the Canucks near the end of last season, were among the scorers as Vancouver outshot Calgary 36-13. Shots in the first period were 18-2.

Raty had an assist for Vancouver. 

The Flames play Edmonton Oilers prospects on Saturday, while the Canucks face Winnipeg Jets rookies on Sunday. The Young Stars tournament ends on Monday.