The Vancouver Canucks may have been eliminated from qualifying for the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs thanks to Kirill Kaprizov, but that doesn't mean there is no reason to watch their four remaining regular season games.
With a record of 36-29-13, the Canucks have a solid and respectable 85 points on the season, but it's nothing to write home about after a 2023-24 campaign saw them tally 50 wins and a whopping 109 points.
As we now know, an ongoing feud between Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller long bubbling behind the scenes spilled over, and a rash of injuries only further sabotaged the season.
By the time the NHL trade deadline came and passed, the Canucks had opened up opportunities for their Abbotsford Canucks clique, which included players like Jonathan Lekkerimaki, Linus Karlsson, Aatu Raty, Elias Pettersson (or 'Junior'), and Victor Mancini, among others.
Those prospects have now taken center stage with a small handful of games remaining in the Canucks' season, though the recent play of one, in particular, has exalted him above the rest.
No. 3: Aatu Raty surging
Aatu Raty has been producing for the Canucks since returning to the NHL lineup on March 24, and the points and goals he's scored have not been empty ones, either.
The 22-year-old Finnish center has come up big when the Canucks needed him the most, playoff elimination notwithstanding.
On March 26, his second game back in the Canucks' lineup and playing against the club that drafted him, the New York Islanders, in Long Island for the first time, Raty scored the 2-2 equalizer in what would ultimately become a 5-2 win for the Canucks on the road.
After that win, the Canucks were just five points behind the St. Louis Blues for the final wildcard playoff spot in the Western Conference with two games in hand.
Indeed, the Canucks did not control their destiny, but they had hope. Raty played a big part in giving them that hope.
In the very next game, Raty tried to will the Canucks to a win after blowing a 3-0 lead in the first period of the March 28 game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Just under seven minutes into the third period, Raty's fourth goal of the season re-established a two-goal lead for the Canucks, putting them ahead 5-3 with a quarter of the period alread done.
The Blue Jackets, of course, again stormed back with three unanswered goals to take a 6-5 lead, only for Raty to strike again with under three minutes remaining to tie the game at 6-6.
So, while the Canucks did lose in a shootout, their young center prospect saved their season two nights in a row. You can't possibly ask for much more than that.
Against Vegas, in the game after that, Raty scored another game-tying goal.
Raty scored again in the Canucks' epic 6-5 come-from-behind overtime win against Dallas, breaking up two Stars goals to bring the Canucks within two at 5-3. Before that, Raty had assisted Victor Mancini's power play goal - his first as a Canuck - to bring the Canucks within one at 3-2 early in the third period.
This is all to say that, yes, if Elias Pettersson continues to miss games in this lost season, the Canucks must be giving Aatu Raty first-line minutes the rest of the way. He's more than earned it, at this point.