Aatu Räty is making it harder and harder to keep him off the Vancouver Canucks’ roster.
It’s not that Räty is lighting up the scoreboard, though he did score his first of the preseason on Saturday night in Calgary. It’s that he’s doing all the little things that you want to see from a bottom-six centre in the NHL — winning board battles, winning faceoffs, winning smile — while also showing that he has the shot and playmaking creativity to chip in some points along the way.
Räty has been playing in all situations during the preseason and has done particularly well on the penalty kill. What’s of special interest is that he switches hands for faceoffs on the right side of the ice, making him equally adept at winning faceoffs on either side. With the Canucks lacking a right-shot centre, that’s a detail that surely hasn’t escaped head coach Rick Tocchet.
Räty was centring the Canucks’ top line against the Flames between Nils Höglander and Conor Garland. That’s a line that has been together since the start of training camp, giving Räty a real chance to prove himself at centre with a couple of NHL wingers. More than that, Höglander and Garland are quick, mobile skaters and it challenged Räty, whose biggest weakness has been skating, to keep up with their pace.
“He’s a sticky player,” said Tocchet. “He gets in there and comes up with loose pucks. He can make some good plays. When you play with Gars — Gars played hard tonight, he kind of pushed him into the fight. I like that, I like that line together.”
What has impressed me about Räty is how diligent and methodical he is in improving his game. He’s a smart player and he’s constantly looking for ways to improve in little ways, right down to incorporating new tricks and tactics into his faceoffs and putting together a book on faceoff opponents.
“I think there’s still some timing issues with the faceoffs and playing against players that I haven’t played in a while, so there’s some new looks. I’ve got to dial that in,” said Räty after Saturday’s game. “I can still be stronger on the boxouts and make some smarter plays at times on the wall.”
A faceoff-winning, penalty-killing, board-battle-winning centre, whose strongest desire is to make smarter plays on the wall — Räty was designed in a lab to be Tocchet’s favourite player.
Still, there’s a lingering question of whether there’s even room for Räty to make the roster. About the only way it makes sense is if Dakota Joshua isn’t ready to return by opening night, which isn’t an ideal situation. But if that’s the case, the Canucks could move Pius Suter to the wing, put Räty between Höglander and Garland on the third line, and use Teddy Blueger as the team’s fourth-line centre.
Honestly, that sounds like a pretty good idea, particularly after I watched this game.
- It’s not particularly surprising that the Flames won this game — they dressed a much better, more experienced lineup — but it was a much closer game than the 4-2 score would indicate. It wasn’t like the Flames were drastically out-possessing or out-chancing the Canucks. Instead, the Canucks just had some defensive breakdowns, which isn’t surprising when Carson Soucy and Vincent Desharnais were the top pairing and also Mark Friedman played over 23 minutes. I’m pretty sure the Canucks will be able to avoid that during the regular season.
- Vilmer Alriksson sent Phil Di Giuseppe in on a breakaway in the opening minute with a lovely pass, just missing out on an assist when Di Giuseppe shot the puck wide. Then that duo, centred by Nils Åman, spent pretty much every remaining shift trapped in the defensive zone. Alriksson has had a great camp but it’s about time for him to go back to junior, while Åman and Di Giuseppe need a solid kick in the pants or they could find themselves cut like Wendell, Rudy, Janey, Steven, Martin, and Rod.
- The tough night for Soucy and Desharnais started on the opening goal, when they combined to screen Arturs Silovs on a shot by Brayden Pachal from the point. Pachal’s wager was that Silovs wouldn’t be able to see the shot through traffic and the wager paid off.
- The Flames made it 2-0 on a more significant gaffe by Soucy and Desharnais, who both took the same man in front, leaving Ryan Lomberg all alone in the slot to pick up a loose puck and fire it past Silovs. Even worse, Lomberg then asked Soucy and Desharnais if they got the memo about putting the new cover sheets on all TPS reports.
- Jonathan Lekkerimäki hasn’t had much luck through Young Stars and the preseason, as he had yet to find the back of the net heading into Saturday’s game. But Lekkerimäki got a little luckiermäki midway through the first period when his shot was blocked by Artem Grushnikov. The puck fluttered up into the air and rainbow’d right over Dan Vladar’s head and in.
- Daniel Sprong deserves some credit for his assist on the goal, as he perfectly timed a stick-lift on Pachal, then poked the puck free to Lekkerimäki. It was a nice piece of hard skill by Sprong, showing he’s not just speed, hands, and shot.
- The biggest thing Elias Pettersson (the defenceman) needs to work on is poise with the puck. Pettersson rushing passes has been a theme all preseason, as he needs to learn when he can hold onto pucks and make a play. He threw a puck away around the boards midway through the second period that immediately turned into a Flames goal when he and Noah Juulsen left both of their checks wide open in the slot to tip in a point shot.
- Räty got the Canucks within one a few minutes later. Höglander caught the Flames on a bad change and sprung Garland and Räty for a 2-on-1. Garland sucked in the Flames defenceman like Alex Jones sucking in his gut for an “after” picture, then slipped the puck through to Räty. The Finn finished with patience and poise, cutting inside to change the angle on Vladar and fire the puck inside the post.
- “Kind of a weird 2-on-1,” said Räty. “Höggy made a great play on the wall, kind of stretched their unit a little bit. Me and Gars got on that 2-on-1 and he didn’t really look at me at all but I knew he was going to find me…I think the D was a little bit surprised that it was a 2-on-1, so he wasn’t playing me at all, just playing a 1-on-1 with Garland.”
- The Flames regained the two-goal lead before the end of the second. Noah Juulsen was gapped-up with Adam Klapka as he gained the blue line, then inexplicably stopped checking Klapka as Flames forward pulled up. Instead, Juulsen just pointed at him, as if he could pass on the responsibility for checking him to somebody else when everyone else had their own checks to worry about. Klapka’s long shot beat a screened Silovs to make it 4-2.
- It’s a little bit concerning that all four goals came as the consequence of point shots, as Silovs’ one weakness in the playoffs last year was long shots through traffic. That’s an area of his game that Silovs needs to improve or other teams will quickly get the book on him.
- Akito Hirose left the game early in the third period after a hit by Adam Klapka that sent him hurtling dangerously into the boards. Hirose hit back first and his head whiplashed back, forcing him to stay down for a long time, then head straight to the locker room. It should have been called boarding, even though it wasn’t a hit from behind; instead, there was no penalty on the play.
- Garland got some time on the penalty kill in this game and was rather good at it, with his constant motor making up for his limited reach to get him into passing and shooting lanes. He even created a shorthanded breakaway for himself. And no, I’m not going to make a short joke about Garland being in a shorthanded situation.
- What exactly is Soucy supposed to do when he’s standing still with his stick at waist level and an opponent skates his face directly into his blade? How on earth is that his fault? It may have looked like he was grinning like a maniac after injuring an opponent but I’m pretty sure he was just laughing at the absurdity of the penalty.
- The Flames out-shot the Canucks 11-to-0 when Mark Friedman was on the ice at even-strength. That’s less than ideal. To his credit, Friedman did get one good shot of his own when he jumped up in a shorthanded rush for a chance from a Max Sasson setup. But his play at even-strength was double-plus-ungood.
- Let’s sum up: Räty, Garland, and Höglander were all quite good. Daniel Sprong continued to impress. Soucy and Desharnais shouldn’t be playing 20+ minutes per game — no big shock — or maybe shouldn’t be playing together at all. And 13-14 of the players in the Canucks’ lineup for this game won’t be on the Canucks’ opening night roster, so no fretting about the loss.
