On today’s episode of Canucks Conversation, Chris Faber and I talked about golf, Dererk Clancey, fighting in hockey, and much more!
Among those topics was Faber’s prospect report series which has been running daily over the past ten days here at CanucksArmy. Today, Faber named Elias Pettersson (D-Petey) the Canucks’ second-best prospect, meaning Tom Willander will be crowned in the top spot tomorrow morning.
After we talked about Pettersson, Faber answered a question from a viewer of our YouTube live show: Why is Aatu Räty ranked third ahead of players like Arturs Silovs and Jonathan Lekkerimäki?
Here’s what Faber had to say:
“You’ve probably heard Aatu Räty’s name since 2017. He was 15 years old at the time, he was playing in Liiga, and he was projected to be the number one overall pick when he was like 16 years old…He’s only 20 years old. He’s just coming off his first full season in North America where it wasn’t bad, 27 points in 52 games. First year adjusting to the North American game, got into some NHL games, what was it like 15 NHL games he’s played as well? He’s only 20, he just turned 20. I think because his name has been around hockey circles, you feel like he’s like 22. He’s still really young. I think there’s a lot of NHL potential there, I think he’s gonna be an NHLer one day.
“I’m not so worried about his skating as some people might be. I think that agility and acceleration are the parts of his game [to work on] but the top speed, like I don’t think there’s that much of a worry about his top speed. It’s going to be about combining processing with agility. I think that’s something that slows him down a little bit at times, is he can’t think the play as quick as you would hope, so I wonder if that’s going to come with a little bit more time in North America. But after what he did in his final year in Liiga being a point per game pretty much then coming over here…He’s he’s only 20 years old. So that’s why I got him at number three. And I think the fact that he’s a centre helps him a little bit over Jonathan Lekkerimäki as well.”
Watch the full clip below!
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