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JPat’s Monday Canucks Mailbag: What does a gold medal win at Worlds really mean for Aatu Räty?
Jeff Paterson's weekly Vancouver Canucks mailbag.
Jeff Paterson
Jun 1, 2026, 11:00 EDTUpdated: Jun 1, 2026, 02:35 EDT
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We’re into the month of June – the biggest month, by far, on the National Hockey League calendar each year. Not only is the Stanley Cup presented, but the league conducts both its combine and its draft, some of the biggest trades each year are consummated at or around the draft and much of the groundwork is done as teams prepare to spend in free agency starting on July 1st. So the next 30 days should be fascinating for the Vancouver Canucks and the other 31 teams around the NHL. You know what else is fascinating? The weekly Monday Mailbag here at CanucksArmy. Once again, you have answered the call for questions. Let’s get down to business and try to provide some answers.
It certainly has to be a boost of confidence to play in a high stakes tournament and have a coach that felt he could contribute. Räty logged 13:47 in Sunday’s 1-0 OT win over Switzerland and won 15 of the 18 face-offs he took. He finished the tournament with four goals and seven points, had 15 shots and won 64% of his draws. So perhaps these two weeks overseas will reinforce the notion that in the right circumstances and with a longer leash than he was given this past season Raty is more than just a face-off specialist. He headed into last offseason nursing an injury, so this is an incredible springboard into this summer. He knows he needs to work on his skating and has vowed to do so. So let’s see what the next few months do in terms of Aatu Räty finding another gear at the NHL level. He should have a little pep in his step knowing that he contributed to a World Championship for his homeland and hopefully the Canucks give him a chance to play and play regularly next season to see what he can do with an opportunity. 
I’m not sure I agree his age is an issue in regards to the rebuild. If we give this new Canucks management five years to construct a contending team, Marco Rossi will be 29. How does that not fit the rebuild? The Canucks aren’t going to build a contender with nothing but 25-year-olds. That’s simply not realistic. So the argument for keeping him is that the Canucks are woefully thin at centre and Rossi scored at a 57-point pace this past season while battling injuries and playing the second half of the schedule on the worst team in the league. Give him a full, healthy season with legitimate wingers and top unit power play time and there’s no reason he can’t exceed his NHL best 60 points of a few years ago.
Now, this doesn’t mean that he’s an absolute lock to stick around for the rebuild. And the lack of available centres around the league will perhaps make him a coveted asset at some point. But we all saw what the Canucks looked like with no centre depth last season, and I can’t imagine there’s an appetite to go down that path again any time soon. So I’m in no hurry to run Rossi out of town. I’d like to see what he looks like with a new head coach and with a full summer to train now that he has some degree of comfort in the city and the organization. If the Canucks use their top pick on centre and Braeden Cootes looks ready to compete for full-time work in the NHL, then perhaps Rossi becomes expendable. But a number of things have to happen before the Canucks should be looking to jettison a guy they had been chasing for a while.

With top dmen playing 30 minutes a game shouldn't teams always take the best dman in the draft over the flashy scoring forward? As long as that dman isn't Juolevi. Hronek went 48 spots lower in that draft.

— DJTaxman77 (@taxman77.bsky.social) 2026-05-30T20:00:17.956Z

You had to go and mention Olli Juolevi, didn’t you? Thanks a lot. Okay, a couple of things: no defenceman averages 30 minutes a night, not even the best of the best, so let’s not get carried away here. And clearly when Hronek was drafted a decade ago, teams had reservations about parts of his game otherwise he would have been taken earlier than 53rd overall. So sometimes it’s impossible to peg which players are going to develop into NHL work horses. In a redraft of the 2016 class, Hronek would certainly go higher while Juolevi likely wouldn’t be considered. I understand the point you’re trying to make about the value of stud blueliners, but you can’t ice a team comprised solely of defencemen. Somebody has to score the goals. So no it’s not nearly as simple as always taking a minute-munching defenceman over a forward. 
I do. And so does Quadrelli, who wrote on this very topic late last week. I also think the Canucks will likely add a veteran puckstopper in free agency to provide organizational depth in Abbotsford. We need to see what they plan to do with Nikita Tolopilo (keep him in the NHL, try to slip him through waivers, or trade him this offseason) and the dominoes topple from there. Ty Young and Aku Koskenvuo need somewhere to play. And as mentioned, Alexei Medvedev figures in the franchise’s longer-term plans. But to answer your question, with 10 selections in this year’s draft, I’d be shocked if one of them wasn’t earmarked for a netminder.
I sure hope so. It’s such a flawed strategy to think that back-end loading the schedule is somehow a good idea. After last year, I’m sort of in favour of the Canucks foregoing all of their home games next season. The eight-game homestand in January was saved only by the star power of the opponents (McDavid, Ovechkin, Crosby, Matthews, Celebrini etc). The second eight-gamer after the Olympics was excruciating with visits from the likes of Ottawa, Nashville, Seattle, St. Louis and Los Angeles.
The Canucks went 2-5-1 on that first lengthy homestand and 2-6 on the other. So there was absolutely no benefit to the team to stack the bulk of their home games in the second half of the season. The opposite is probably a better strategy for a rebuilding team. Play more home games early on. Less travel equals more practice time. Plus if another season slips away, you’re not asking your fans to come out to see multiple meaningless games down the stretch. At the end of the season, every team will play 42 at home and 42 on the road (yes, there are two additional games next season), so it all evens out in the wash. I just think there are better ways to spread games out and limit the lengthy stretches on home ice, especially over the second half of the season. Nobody wants that again.

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