Aatu Raty has made his case to remain with the Vancouver Canucks for the rest of the season after his eventful week with the big club.
Raty, 22, joined the Canucks ahead of their Monday night game against the New Jersey Devils, making his first NHL appearance since Jan. 31.
The Finn started his scoring party in his second appearance of the week, scoring the game-tying goal in the second period of Wednesday's game against the New York Islanders, the club that drafted him, then traded him in a package for Bo Horvat.
After Raty tied the game at 2-2, the Canucks went on to score three more goals unanswered to storm away and win, 5-2.
Raty followed that up with a two-goal performance against the Columbus Blue Jackets, on Friday night, though the Canucks, unfortunately, lost that game in a shootout. Without Raty's efforts, though, the Canucks would not have made it to the shootout.
The former second-round pick helped settle things after the Canucks blew a 3-0 lead, following up Tyler Myers's short-handed goal with a third-period snipe on the rush. After taking a 5-3 lead with under 15 minutes remaining, it looked for all the world like the Canucks would hang on and win.
Except they didn't, and the Blue Jackets again scored three unanswered to take a 6-5 lead with less than three minutes to go.
Raty answered Mathieu Olivier's go-ahead goal after just 23 seconds, driving hard to the net and converting his chance from close range to tie the game at 6-6.
On the other hand, Canucks center Teddy Blueger was a minus-2 in the contest and won only nine of his 23 faceoffs, whereas Raty won eight of his 15.
Blueger, a reliable veteran, just isn't what the Canucks need, and that is fine. Raty, with three goals in his last two games, is up to five on the season in just 24 games played, whereas Blueger is at eight goals and 23 points in total despite playing in 73 games and averaging a healthy 14:21 per game.
Raty has proven capable of doing more when he plays more, and this was proven to be true after he scored twice against Columbus while taking a career-high 22 shifts and playing 12:27.
As one of the lowest-octane teams in the NHL, the Canucks need to take offence where they can get it, and with Elias Pettersson and Filip Chytil out injured, they must turn to their youngsters.
Raty is the latest to take advantage of a larger opportunity, and he deserves to keep having them thrown his way.