Nobody claims Aatu Räty off Canucks waivers

The Canucks put Räty on waivers Wednesday, and they were openly nervous about losing him.

That was Thomas Drance at The Athletic. After polling people around the league, he called Räty modestly more likely to be claimed than to clear. Vancouver's line about how it "looked at all options" wasn't just talk, either. Postmedia's Patrick Johnston reported the club tried to trade the center first and couldn't find a deal. GM Ryan Johnson's position was basically that the kid deserved a shot somewhere, and nobody wanted to give him one.

The case for claiming him was easy to make. Räty is 6-foot-2, 23 years old and cheap, and he was winning draws all over the place. He had won 56.8% of his 44 faceoffs this season, which put him near the top of the league. The problem was everything else. He had dressed for 4 of Vancouver's 8 games, played 10:10 a night, and his only goal was an empty-netter against Calgary. Last season he put up 4 goals and 14 points in 66 NHL games.

The insiders who saw him as a no-brainer pickup made the same pitch.

Then Thursday's noon deadline came and went. Elliotte Friedman posted the result in 2 words, Rick Dhaliwal confirmed it, and San Jose's Alex Barre-Boulet, who went on the wire the same day, also went unclaimed. That sent a pair of NHL-experienced forwards to the minors in the span of a minute.

Andrew Knoll had spent Wednesday saying any smart team would take Räty, and the result caught him off guard. He wasn't alone. By his read, a lot of people around the league were surprised, Drance included.

For Vancouver this is the best-case version of a bad week. Clearing Räty opens the roster spot needed to activate Filip Chytil from injured reserve, and the Canucks keep the asset instead of getting nothing for him. His first AHL game could come as early as Saturday, October 17, against the Coachella Valley Firebirds. Abbotsford is off to a 1-2-0-1 start, so he should get real minutes.

The bigger picture hasn't changed. Räty already has 169 AHL games and 119 points, so there isn't much left for him to prove at that level. A Canucks team that couldn't find him a regular spot also couldn't find a trade partner. He's young enough to fit a rebuild, but everything this week suggests his future isn't in Vancouver. Now the other 31 teams have passed on him for free too, and every one of them can still make a trade call.