Rattie aims for fresh start in Edmonton
Limited showing for ex-Winterhawk
First-round draft picks often get second, third and fourth chances. Anyone else? The clock’s ticking. Which brings us to right-winger Ty Rattie, who did so much damage as a junior with the Portland Winterhawks in their Western Hockey League playoff battles with the Edmonton Oil Kings.
Rattie was the St. Louis Blues’ second-round selection in 2011, 32nd overall, but he couldn’t gain any traction with them, although he made the NHL team out of training camp last fall and got picked up on waivers late last season by Carolina, with whom he scored two goals in five games. Now he has a one-year, two-way contract with the Oilers ($700,000 NHL salary, $225,000 in Bakersfield of the American Hockey League).
He’s 24 years old and has only played 35 NHL games. In a way, he’s like Griffin Reinhart, who was here before Vegas took him in the expansion draft. Except Reinhart was a first-rounder.
Rattie, described by Blues general manager Doug Armstrong as a “good soldier,” is looking for a breath of life here, although there are obviously no guarantees.
Leon Draisaitl will likely be the Oilers’ top-line right winger. If Ryan Strome is used as a third-line centre after Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins rather than as a right winger, it’s a little more open with Anton Slepyshev, Zack Kassian and Iiro Pakarinen as options at that position.
Rattie, who once held the record for most points in a bantam AAA season in Alberta in 2007-08 until current Oilers prospect Tyler Benson beat the mark five years later, knows the score — he has to prove, fairly soon, he’s worthy of being a full-time NHLer
He had a season from hell last year with the Blues. He never played. He just watched.
“Interesting year, I guess you could say,” said Rattie. “I made the team at camp, but I only played four games in four months, which put my timing off, but I want to put that behind me.
“You come to the rink hoping to see your name on the lineup sheet. I was disappointed, but you have to be professional about it. I was on an NHL roster, trying to work hard every day.”
The opposing teams’ book on Rattie as a junior was to keep him away from the scoring areas because he’d absolutely torch you. His last two years in Portland, he scored 39 goals in 42 playoff games as a tag-team partner with Sven Baertschi. But while he scored 31 goals in his first pro season with the Chicago Wolves, it hasn’t been as a good a ride since with 40 goals in 143 AHL games.
He’s big enough at six-feet and 190 pounds, but the knock on him in St. Louis was he’s only an average skater. He didn’t get a long shot for top-six minutes in St. Louis, a combination of his play and people ahead of him. He averaged about 91/2 minutes a night there.
SEMENKO REMEMBERED
The Oilers will have a celebration of life for Dave Semenko Thursday at 2 p.m. at Rogers Place. Semenko, 59, passed away June 29 from pancreatic cancer.
It is open to the public with admission free of charge. Fans wanting to attend have to contact Ticketmaster to order a maximum of four tickets a person.
Doors open at noon.