Aatu Räty scored a lovely goal on a line with Nils Höglander and Conor Garland.
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 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.
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.
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