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Edmonton Oilers forward Noah Philp faces off against Vancouver Canucks forward Aatu Raty (Bob Frid-Imagn Images)

Canucks 2025-26 Player Previews: Aatu Raty

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers
By Matthew Zator | Last updated Jul 24, 2025 1:10 PM ET

With the 2025 NHL Draft and the initial free agency frenzy in the books, we now turn to previewing the 2025-26 season for the Vancouver Canucks. Instead of doing report cards, I thought I would change things up and do previews instead. In this ongoing offseason series, I will endeavour to dive into every player in the Canucks organization – even the prospects – and do a recap of last season, what their expectations are going into this season, and finally, predict what their final stat line could look like. In the case of the prospects, I will go a little deeper and talk about their place in the pipeline as well as their future in the NHL and Canucks colours.

First up is 22-year-old Aatu Raty, who is now the only player left from the trade that sent Bo Horvat to the New York Islanders. With Pius Suter deciding to take his services to the St. Louis Blues, he might be the most equipped to replace his Swiss Army knife versatility and not only center the third line, but also take a prominent role on the penalty kill. Let’s take a look at his 2024-25 season and what will be expected of him in 2025-26.

Aatu Raty

How Acquired: Trade from the Islanders in 2023
2024-25 Teams: Vancouver Canucks and Abbotsford Canucks
2024-25 Stats: Vancouver – seven goals and 11 points in 33 games; Abbotsford – 17 goals and 39 points in 41 games
2025-26 Contract Status: Signed to a two-year deal worth $775,000 average annual value that ends in 2026-27

2024-25 Season Recap

Raty had a good season all around in 2024-25, splitting his time between Abbotsford and Vancouver. He was nearly a point-per-game player in the American Hockey League (AHL) and often centered a top-six line with Arshdeep Bains and Jonathan Lekkerimaki. If he had spent the entire season in the AHL, he would have hit a career-high 67 points, eclipsing the 52 he had in 2023-24 when he didn’t see a single game with the parent club. Last season was a different story, though, as he saw a fair amount of time in the NHL and started showing fans why he was a big piece of the Horvat trade.

From the well-documented flipping his stick over to take faceoffs on his weak side to forming chemistry with Kiefer Sherwood and the now-departed Dakota Joshua, Raty became a prominent figure on the Canucks roster and ended up getting into a career-high 33 games. He was especially noticeable when both Elias Pettersson and Filip Chytil went down with injuries, slotting in as the second-line centre behind Suter. After getting back into Vancouver’s lineup on March 24, he not only got a boost in ice time but started producing more, scoring five of his seven goals.

Raty was also the team’s go-to guy for faceoffs, fittingly taking on the Horvat role of coming out for the draw and quickly heading off after taking it (and often winning it). Even though it was just a small sample size of 333 faceoffs, he finished with an impressive 57 percent win rate, which is eerily similar to the numbers Horvat put up when he was with the Canucks. While that doesn’t necessarily mean he will be as good as Horvat when he hits his prime, it’s a great indicator that he could be a solid second-line centre in the future – possibly as soon as this season.

2025-26 Season Expectations

Usurping Chytil on the second line is obviously the best-case scenario for Raty and the Canucks, but I think they will settle for a reliable third-line centre in the ilk of Elias Lindholm or Raty’s head coach in Abbotsford, Manny Malhotra. One that chips in offence to the tune of 15-20 goals while winning key faceoffs and being solid defensively. He has grown a lot since coming over from the Islanders and is starting to look more and more like the blue-chip prospect that was in the conversation for first overall back in 2021. Whether he hits that previously thought-of pedigree remains to be seen, but he’s showing flashes of why draft experts were putting him on that pedestal back then.

"He just looks like a completely different player right now.."@brandon_astle joined us and talked about Aatu Raty's hot stretch and what might be in his future.

Full interview..https://t.co/QQ7oWWbXkj pic.twitter.com/kGWbF2IaYx
— Donnie & Dhali (@DonnieandDhali) April 5, 2024

Raty has the size, shot, and playmaking abilities, not to mention two-way game, to become what Horvat was to the Canucks for so many years. While fans shouldn’t expect him to become that this season, the opportunity in front of him, especially if general manager Patrik Allvin isn’t successful in his search for a proven second-line centre, could have him move closer to that potential. One thing is certain, though: the Horvat trade is looking better and better by the day, considering what they turned the first-round pick into (Filip Hronek) and Raty’s exciting ceiling in the next few years. Here’s to hoping it’s realized sooner rather than later.

Quotables

“I’m just working on it every day, taking 30-40 draws after every practice and then trying to pick everyone’s brains…We got a lot of good faceoff guys here, too. If you have a coach who’s going to draw us, I will try to ask questions and improve. I have a little bit of a weird technique. So obviously, certain things work on different people. I don’t know if anybody else is using the technique that I’m using. So, it’s good that you won’t get a mirror image.”
– Raty on developing his faceoff skills

“When we first got him, his skating was just okay…The development guys and the Abbotsford guys did a helluva job with him, because to me he’s a different player. I see another level. He looks fast out there. And every drill he does he goes 100 per cent. Even in the morning skate I told him he had to slow down a bit because you want to save it for tonight. I like that attitude from a young kid. The biggest thing with young guys is to remember it’s the NHL. They get the puck and right away they go into awareness mode. They start to look around and don’t move their feet.”
– former Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet on Raty’s development (from ‘Canucks: No adieu Aatu Raty, feisty Finn should become roster regular next season,’ The Province, 7/23/25).

Final Stat Prediction

Raty is now eligible for waivers, so he will be a full-time NHL player this season. As such, I see him hitting 15 goals and 40 points, playing mostly on the third line and second-unit penalty kill. He might even line up with Teddy Blueger on the first unit as a winger, although, given his prowess in the faceoff dot, new assistant coach Kevin Dean will likely want him to center his own duo.

In the end, Raty will be given every chance to succeed this season and keep developing into the two-way dynamo he was tabbed to become before his draft year. He will be an interesting prospect to watch during training camp and the preseason to see where head coach Adam Foote sees him in his lineup heading into the regular season.