Building Blue: Young but Experienced, Aatu Räty Prepares for Biggest Season of his Young Career

It has been a busy summer for Aatu Räty after a bustling season where he played in all 72 games for the Abbotsford Canucks.

The 21-year-old centre is at a point in his career where he is now fully comfortable with the transition to North American hockey and is seeing British Columbia evolve into his new home.

“I guess this is the longest I’ve been with a team now,” said Räty with a chuckle. “It’s now been one and a half seasons of not getting traded. I think this is the time to take the next step in my career.”

Räty has a jampacked offseason and he likes it that way. The youngster set up a strict program that works well for him to get plenty of ice time, be in the gym as much as possible, and continue to improve his game in preparation for his third full season in North America.

“It's all about creating a program and then trusting it. You just have to grind through it. You can't let other things like people asking you to [change your plans] and go somewhere. You have to set everything up around your workouts because going away from the program means you won't recover the way you should,” said Räty.

“You just have to trust the process and kind of have nothing to do the whole summer. For me, it’s a lot about speed and strength in my lower body. On top of the strength stuff, there’s a lot of work on the ice doing skating work. But I can’t do squats seven days a week. It’s a lot of work to bring the work in the gym to the ice and I like it. I’m getting a really good feeling about my technique this summer. I feel like I’m really improving.”

Even though he is just 21 years old, Räty has matured a lot. When he was 16 years old, he worked out for hours and hours on end but didn’t set himself up to recover the right way. He was lucky that he was young, and his body was able to push through but there is a more mature way of looking at workouts now and some of that maturity was gifted to him through conversations with Daniel and Henrik Sedin.

The Sedins have been a big part of Räty’s development over the past 18 months since he was acquired in a trade from the New York Islanders.

“I think they're really good at developing because they keep it simple,” said Räty. “Everybody knows that there is no magic formula, but how they coach is a lot like how they played. They work hard, they keep it simple, and if you see their drills, they are simple – there's nothing fancy about them, but they are effective.”

The Sedins have been a tremendous help for Räty to not only adjust but thrive in the North American game. Transitioning to the smaller ice was something that required trial and error from Räty in his first two seasons on this side of the pond.

"You have to adapt and play the way that hockey is played here. The coaches know what they're doing, and they've been in North America for a lot longer than I have,” said Räty with a laugh. “I know that I need to trust in that and continue playing that way. There are obviously things in my game that got me here so it's not like I'm trying to completely change the way I play but I trust the coaches and the game plan.”

Räty finished the 2023-24 season with 18 goals and 34 assists for 52 points in 72 games. That was good enough to tie for third in points on the Abbotsford Canucks and sixth in the AHL for players who are 21 years old or younger.

In a year where his points came in bunches, Räty found that he was more consistent over the stretch of a full 72-game season than he has been in the past. Even when the points were not coming, he felt that the chances were there and then when the points did come, it did not change his approach to his game.

“It's really important to have those good stretches but once you have them, you’ve got to stay levelheaded,” said Räty. “We have a film coach in Abbotsford and go through every game in detail. Sometimes when I had streaks with no points, we would watch and see that I'm still doing the same things as I was when I had four points in a period.”

“I felt like some of my better periods were when I had no points but instead you control possession and control the wall. That’s just hockey. You never want to be too high or too low on points. You need to look deeper than just points and look at your overall performance.”

One of the new things that Räty had to adapt to this past year, was taking on the challenge of being able to play all three forward positions. Räty has been a pure centre all his life but this past season, he was used on both wings and found that it gave more of an opportunity for the different strengths of his game to shine.

Räty is at a point in his hockey career where he is trying to add as many things to his toolbelt as possible. He knows that having versatility will give him a better chance of making the lineup and helping the NHL club have success.

He was also surprised in his time on the wing. Hockey is a fluid game and Räty found that a lot of time, he was playing wing during play through the neutral zone but that in the defensive zone and on faceoffs, he would often get the call to be the centre.

“It's not like you're just on the wing all the time. When you're playing with skillful players who have good hockey sense, you're just playing the game,” said Räty. “Everybody's filling in where they are needed and flowing to the correct position."

Räty still primarily plays as a centre and was proud of his 55% faceoff percentage last season in the AHL. The 21-year-old has some tricks in the faceoff dot that have progressed through his two seasons in North America including taking faceoffs right-handed, to use the sweeping action of his left-hand curved stick.

With the changes to the Canucks’ roster in the offseason bringing in new depth forwards, Räty is focusing on his own improvement this summer. The goal for him is to improve his skating and continue evolving as a young player in the AHL.

He is not fixating on the Vancouver Canucks’ projected lineup but instead just looking to help the organization.

“You obviously want to make the team out of camp, but if you play well, people are going to notice. I think it's simply about playing the game the right way and just doing everything I can while not thinking about the result of if I'm going to make the team or not. That is unnecessary pressure,” said Räty.

“They are going to make the best team possible and obviously I want to be part of that but it's not all about me. We want to win. I'm just going give it my all and make it not be up to me. Right now, I am just focused on giving 100% and doing all the preparation in the summer.”

Räty feels confident in his ability and how he has adjusted to the North American game over the past two seasons. He knows what areas of his game need to improve and he is working tirelessly but intelligently so that he can take his game to the next level and continue to be a young contributor to the Canucks’ organization.