Aatu Räty has grown significantly throughout his first season as a full-time NHL player,
Having gone into the season with the primary goal of staying with the Vancouver Canucks for the entire year, not only has Räty successfully accomplished this, he also proved to be an important part of the lineup, including on the penalty kill, and an incredible player in the faceoff circle.
“I came into the year trying to be a full-time NHLer — accomplished that — the next step is to become a really good player,” Räty said. “[I’m] really happy about the draws, happy about my penalty kill, happy about the defensive reliability.”
“I thought I was a reliable role player, and I was really happy to do that job.”
Another area of his game that Räty had hoped to grow this season was his physicality, and being a well-rounded player that served as a tough opponent each and every night. By ensuring that the physicality was a consistent part of his toolkit, he has been able to improve on the defensive side of his game and be trusted in high stakes defensive situations.
“I feel like it’s a great way to really bring something every night. I go in there and I’m going to be strong in the dot, good on the kill, just play really direct [and] be physical and be a hard guy to play against,” Räty said.
Beyond his on-ice capabilities, Räty has become tuned in to the mental side of the game as well and understand how it impacts on-ice play. Through that process, he has been able to find a degree of stability in both how he approaches the game, and how he performs on the ice. Räty also mentions how he has encouraged other teammates, including Max Sasson, to learn more about the mental game as well.
“It’s such a big thing, and it’s something I still want to get so much better at,” Räty said. “Even the mindset you go into the game, or finding the perfect mental state that works for you the best, and I think it can be a lot different if you are a guy who plays 20 minutes has a lot of touches on the power play to a guy who plays 12 and just needs to be a dog out there.”
Räty emphasized how growing the mental aspects of the game as a professional athlete is not a one-size-fits-all approach, and that players must fine tune and properly explore what works best for them, and how. That is a major training goal that Räty has for the offseason.
“You have to find your own best state. You just need to learn and try different things and figure out what is best for you. I’m definitely going to read about that and learn about that and talk to people,” Räty said.
In regards to how the Canucks finished their season, Räty felt that the team was connecting and had really worked to start the process of laying the foundation for a new team culture that could grow over the offseason and into the next year.
“I really liked the way the room was at the end of the year, I thought we had a really good thing going,” Räty said. “Guys were really working together towards a shared goal, and I felt like the bench was great [and] we had a lot of energy and everyone gained energy from that.”
“I feel like that’s definitely something we are going to take this year and try to bring it up next year and ramp it up,” Räty said.
Listen to this and much more as Räty joins Chris Faber on the latest episode of the Canucks Insider Podcast.
