Cornuck wrote: ↑Wed Oct 14, 2026 11:13 am
The Vancouver Canucks have placed Aatu Raty on waivers.
Bains stays alive a little longer...
With the caveat that I don't know what I don't know (about attitude, habits, work ethic), and with the perspective that the player has a diminishingly small chance of having a meaningful long term impact on this team and so the stakes are small, and with the humility that Malhotra and Foote (presumably guys with more info) were seemingly of the same mind about the player; I don't understand this move and haven't really understood why he's been scratched so much given that (1) he plays center and the Canucks have played at center three guys better off at wing (Cotter, O'Connor, Sasson), (2) he can win faceoffs and the rest of the team is poor in that area and possession is a major problem, (3) while he's near the end of the runway in terms of developing into more, he's not at the end of the runway; (4) his "fundamentals" holes in terms of positioning and battle are not terrible. I get that he's slow-footed -- so is Baines, Gallagher, Boeser, and Karlsson. And there's a brief for Boeser and Karlsson that is better than for Raty (they both have acumen around the net, Boeser is also a sniper and good passer, and Karlsson is good on the wall). The brief for Gallagher is weaker on ice, but different (the vet thing), and one where he doesn't need to play every game to satisfy. Baines? Baffling. The speed (both foot and decisionmaking) is obvious; less obvious is his completely worthless play 5 on 5 in the defensive zone.
And what's the need here? Are the Canucks ready to give Mueller or Cootes a shot? If there was a reason to develop them further in the AHL, a couple of weeks doesn't make the difference. Is there a hope that Raty has more development to do down there and he just needs the ice time and there's an okay chance he gets through waivers? Possibly, but the fact is there's not a great reason (which we can see by watching games) why that question isn't "AHL at 17 minutes a night or NHL at 12 minutes" instead of "AHL at 17 minutes a night or press box".
I guess this is "necessary" because Chytil is about to become activated, right? Somebody was going down -- I'd have chosen Baines because he's a zero or Mancini because he really should be playing some hockey.
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