BUILDING BLUE - CDC 16 (1)

Fresh from being named the AHL’s player of the week, 22-year-old Vancouver Canucks prospect Aatu Räty is back up with the big team and looking to get another opportunity to grow his game at the NHL level.

Before his call-up to Vancouver, Räty was a key piece in an eight-game winning streak for the Abbotsford Canucks. Räty had 13 points (3g-10a) through the winning streak and has been one of the best in the AHL at winning faceoffs this season.

Räty began the season with Vancouver but has played 23 games in the AHL compared to 20 in the NHL this season. The young centre’s approach to developing in the AHL has a heavy feature on utilizing his improved skating and seeing how the game is different after a big summer where he felt he took steps with his stride.

“It's the same old, but it's still skating," said Räty on what he is focusing on for development. “I think it's been getting better. I made a nice jump in the summer, and I think that helped me have a good training camp and a good start to the season. During games, a lot of times you can’t really focus on your technique, so maybe bad habits come out. This year I’m trying to enforce the new thoughts and focus on the things that make [my skating] better. During the season I am obviously continuing to try to get stronger and faster, which obviously helps too. I’m trying to try to make skating hopefully a strength in the future, from it being a weakness in the past.”

Räty mentioned that this summer was a bit of a breakthrough for him as he focused on single skills instead of just overall improvement. After a couple of seasons in North America, Räty knew where he wanted to improve and found skills coaches with expertise in that specific field.

“I figured out how I would learn the best,” said Räty. “Sometimes, you work with few different skill coaches, and everybody obviously has good stuff. But this summer, I really only worked on a couple of things and made sure they got a lot better.”

“Also, what is really important for me is to understand and feel the change. For example, when I'm working on crossovers, I'll do the rep, and I do not need to look at the coach and ask, ‘Was that a good rep?’ I want to know from the feel if it was a good rep.”

Räty mentioned that he got some good advice from Canucks skills coach Jason Krog about changing his skate sharpness and has found that it helped with his new body-lean focus during his strides.

An important piece of Räty’s development comes from the guidance he receives from Abbotsford Head Coach Manny Malhotra. Malhotra worked his way to play nearly 1000 games in the NHL and had to find his role in the world’s best league.

Malhotra sees so much value in the little things like fitting into a structure, hard work at and away from the rink, strong faceoff ability, and the boost that comes from a blocked shot. These types of skills that Malhotra was able to learn and display at the NHL level are some of the things that Räty is trying to add to his game as he develops.

With the AHL schedule of primarily playing on weekends, Räty has been able to work with Malhotra and the skills coaches throughout the week and finds that the extra practice time is helping his game grow quickly at his youthful age.

Räty has developed a high level of confidence from his success in the faceoff dot over his three years in North America and appreciates the confidence that both Malhotra and Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet show in him for a big faceoff.

“I feel like I ended up having a good faceoff percentage last year. This year I've gotten a little bit better too. It was great to see the things that I was doing in the AHL working in the NHL. I take 40-50 faceoffs after every practice, so it’s still improving, and I love it, it is something that I love working on. I think faceoffs are so fun,” he said.

“One of my favourite things in the games is to take big draws. There are some really good faceoff guys in Vancouver. But just the fact that I can take them right-handed can be big. Every time you can get out there is huge, but especially for meaningful moments and big faceoffs. Having that [faceoff specialist] role for Tocc would definitely be a dream. That's why I work on them so much.”

Though his role changes as he moves from the AHL to the NHL, many of the staples in his game remain the same. Räty wants to be relied upon in all three zones of the ice and be a player who can chip in on offence when the situations present themselves and establish trust in the defensive zone to earn more ice time and opportunity.

Räty discussed the role that he is trying to fill in the NHL and how it differs from being the top-line centre who plays on both special teams' units in the AHL.

“Taking faceoffs, trying to play hard and be really consistent, keeping your own end clean while not giving up scoring chances, and just trying to get some momentum for the team. Maybe go out and get an O-zone draw or land a good hit on the defenceman. It's definitely different. When you're playing 10 minutes a game, you're that much fresher than when you're playing 20 minutes so, I want to get the best out of smaller minutes and be physical,” said Räty.

As he continues building his game, this continued gain of NHL experience helps Räty see what parts of his game he needs to focus on as he develops to become an everyday NHL player.

Though he lays down a path for himself to develop, when he’s in the midst of a season, Räty tries to remain in the moment and be engaged every time work can be done.

“I’m taking a day at a time and just trying to do my best,” said Räty. “Obviously, I want to stay in the NHL for the rest of the season and scratch and claw the best I can but at the same time, you can do everything perfectly and still be sent down. This time of the year, it's all about wins. I mean, it's always about the wins, but especially now. The standings are tight and literally 100% of my focus is on doing what I can to help us win. You don’t want to lose sleep over when you might get sent down, so I’m just taking everything one day at a time.”