We’re pretty sure it was Timothee Chalamet who sang the words “Oh the times, they are a-changin’.” And they certainly are.

It wasn’t all that long ago that the Vancouver Canucks had, perhaps, the greatest centre depth in the entire NHL. Any team that can offer up a one-two-three punch of Elias Pettersson, JT Miller, and Bo Horvat is going to be in the running for that distinction.

Even after the 2023 trade that sent Horvat to Long Island, the Canucks could still boast one of the best one-twos in Pettersson and Miller – or, should that be phrased ‘Miller and Pettersson’?.

In any case, then the 2024/25 season happened, Miller seemingly had to be shipped out of town, and the Canucks were down to just Pettersson (along with a collection of other centres that includes Filip Chytil, Teddy Blueger, and pending UFA Pius Suter).

This is all of fairly vital importance. Back when they were one of the strongest teams down the middle in the entire league, that centre depth was held up as the number one reason why the Canucks might compete one day. The centre position is often seen as the one of the greatest import when it comes to building a Stanley Cup contender, and the Canucks were already well ahead of the pack in that regard.

But now longer. The times have a-changed, and now centre is probably the Canucks’ area of greatest need, franchise-wide, and the search is on for a solution.

Now, part of that solution is either going to have to be a sustained bounceback from Pettersson as the team’s undisputed 1C. If that doesn’t happen, everything else is largely for naught. There are recent signs of a turnaround, but Pettersson still has a long road to get back to where he once was.

Another part of the solution is meant to be Chytil, who was part of the return in the Miller trade from New York. In full disclosure, this article is being written the morning after Chytil appeared to receive a head injury from a Jason Dickinson hit-from-behind, and information on his well-being is scarce. With that in mind, we’re going to be careful not to make any real pronouncements about Chytil’s future and stick to wishing him the best. Suffice it to say, however, that if Chytil is part of the solution at centre, he was never intended to be the complete answer. Miller left too big a pair of shoes for most singular players to ever realistically fill.

We’ve already spent some time looking ahead at the UFA market for this summer and found it pretty lacking in high-end talent. There’s the odd Sam Bennett, sure, but only a handful of them, and they’ll each be landing some very, very expensive contracts in the near future.

The trade market for centres is always limited and, thus, always a seller’s market. That, too, might be a difficult road for the Canucks to go down – or a pricey one, with the currency being future assets that the organization doesn’t exactly have in abundance.

The most typical and cost-effective way of building up centre depth is to develop it from within. This is, of course, best done with lottery picks, but the Canucks aren’t so fortunate as to have any of those lying around. Vancouver has traded most of their own first-round picks in recent years, and those they have used, they haven’t used on centres.

That’s left the Canucks with essentially just one player in the entire organization who could be considered a genuine part of the solution at centre. And that player is Aatu Räty. The good news is that we believe that Räty’s potential has recently become a bit underrated, and that he actually stands a better chance of contributing down the middle in the Canucks’ middle-six sooner, rather than later.

That Räty is having a great season in Abbotsford isn’t much of a secret. He leads the AHL Canucks with 38 points in 38 games, a five-point lead on their next top scorer.

Those 38 points rank Räty in a tie for 70^th overall in league scoring. Which doesn’t sound terribly impressive. But one has to keep in mind that Räty hasn’t played a full season in Abbotsford. If we measure by points-per-game, then his current 1.00 PPG rate puts him in a tie for 21^st overall, which sounds a lot better. Simply put, Räty is already one of the AHL’s most productive forwards. Among centres, his PPG ranks close to the top 10.

We’re not here to suggest that Räty’s AHL scoring is automatically going to translate into the NHL. Plenty of ‘tweeners’ can put up numbers at the lower levels, but not in the big leagues. However, the younger one is while putting up AHL numbers, then typically the better the chances of the offence translating. And Räty is only 22 (and won’t turn 23 until next season has already begun.)

If we sort the stats by those players who are Räty’s age or younger, we find something pretty remarkable: he ranks third in points-per-game in that group at 1.00, with just Frank Nazar (1.143) and Sasha Pastujov (1.105) slotted ahead of him. Nazar was drafted 13^th overall by the Blackhawks in 2022 and is considered a top-tier NHL prospect. Pastujov was drafted 66^th overall in 2021, just a few spots after Räty.

Every other player with a PPG equal to or greater than Räty’s is at least 24 years old, and a good portion of them are in their late 20s and early 30s. Those are the sorts of players one might expect to dominate the AHL, without that domination meaning much. It’s the players who dominate at a younger age that mean something. Players like Räty.

We’ve talked a lot about the numbers here, but there’s more reason to be bullish about Räty’s potential than just statistics. He’s blessed with great physical attributes, including a solid 6’2” frame and the fact that he shoots left, but can take faceoffs on either side. He’s always had a strong two-way conscience, which is ideal for eventual deployment in the middle-six.

The knock on him has always been his skating, but that’s also the component that he has improved upon the most between last season and this one. Vancouver supporters can probably remember when similar things were said about Horvat, and look how that ended up.

There’s also a serious factor of untapped potential here. Some fans unfamiliar with Räty’s story may not realize that he was once considered the best prospect of his age group. He drew international attention in his early teens and was considered the presumptive first overall pick all the way up to the start of his draft year. Then, he struggled to transition into the Finnish Liiga as an 18-year-old and saw himself slip all the way down to the second round by draft day.

But there has always been some hope that he would rediscover that former greatness eventually and reestablish himself as a truly difference-making prospect.

Is his latest run of success at the AHL level the first step in that reestablishment? The Canucks themselves will certainly hope so. Räty being able to step into the top nine next season, and at least replace the contributions of the likely-departing Suter, would be a major positive step toward restoring meaningful centre depth. And if he could bring any of that offence up from the AHL to the NHL? Then watch out…

Some might wonder why, if Räty is doing so well in Abbotsford, he’s been so frequently passed over for promotions. Nils Åman is up for the team right now, for example, and Räty is both the younger and the more productive centre of the two. What gives? Is this an indication that the front office isn’t as high on Räty as the author of this article?

We’d theorize that the truth is actually the opposite. Those Abbotsford Canucks being called up right now are being called up for largely fourth line minutes (Jonathan Lekkerimäki’s occasional auditions in the top-six aside.)

If we’re correct about Räty’s potential to play meaningful minutes for the Big Canucks as soon as next season, then leaving him down in Abbotsford right now actually makes sense. Räty is not just achieving success; he’s achieving success in a dedicated scoring role. If playing in an NHL middle-six is in Räty’s near future, then it is probably more valuable for him to continue getting top-line reps in the AHL than it would be for him to skate eight to 10 minutes a night in the big leagues.

It’s, we hope, an indication that the plans for Räty are more long-term – and that his best is still yet to come.