2 players for the Canucks to buy and one prospect to sell at the trade deadline

The Canucks need to solidify their team if they plan on making a deep run in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and two particular players can help.

Feb 25, 2023; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; Vancouver Canucks forward Aatu Raty (27) checks
Feb 25, 2023; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; Vancouver Canucks forward Aatu Raty (27) checks | Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports
3 of 4

Prospect to sell: Aatu Raty

The two players listed as ‘to buy’ in this piece are lower liners, so yeah, spoiler alert if you haven’t yet looked at the following section. Anyway, we discussed earlier how Vancouver should be more than okay with mortgaging a future asset for the present, even if a player they plan on ‘buying’ will likely be there between March and June in a best-case scenario. 

Aatu Raty is a prospect who has seen 12 games in the NHL with the New York Islanders before he ended up in the Canucks system, where he scored two points (both goals) in those contests. Raty has spent most of his time with the Bridgeport Islanders and the Abbotsford Canucks (though he appeared in three games with the big club), where he has been moderately productive. 

Raty will never play on the top-six when he makes the eventual jump to a full-time NHLer, but he will be great on the lower lines. He won’t be as physical as Duhaime, but his simpler, faster game will still work in Minnesota should the Canucks make such a trade with the Wild. 

As for the other lower-liner in this article, he plays for a team that may see several forwards move at the deadline. Therefore, Raty could have a decent chance to make that team’s big club out of camp next year should there be a trade and turnover on the bottom-six.

Schedule