Rattie ready and willing to handle the grunt work to make Oilers roster

In the dying seconds of Edmonton Oilers 4-2 win over the Canucks in Vancouver on Tuesday, Ty Rattie had the puck on his stick with two goals already and he never once tried to go to the net.

Instead he ragged it along the boards to kill time, taking a few whacks in the back.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’d like a hattie but if making the team means dogging it in the corner, eating cross-checks in the last minute, I can do that,” said Rattie, who could be on Connor McDavid’s right-wing but didn’t have the captain there against the Canucks.

Rattie’s second goal came after Ben Hutton tried to glove a lobbed shot, fumbled it and Rattie raced in on a breakaway to beat Anders Nilsson.

He made it look ho-hum. “I need to prove I can score and do it on a regular basis. You get a chance like that, you have to put it in,” said Rattie, who had a chat with coach Todd McLellan before camp started, along with several other auditioning right-wingers.

“Todd brought a few of us in, showed us the depth chart and said this is our chance. It’s nice to be in that conversation,” said Rattie, who has always had hands but worked industriously on his skating this summer, trying to separate himself from checkers with a stronger first step.

“I’ve watched Nuge (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins) and Connor, the way they come out of the corners, watched their stride. There’s lots of tight turns there,” said Rattie.

Could break your ankle watching McDavid with his edges, mind you?

“Yeah, I’m not trying to do anything Connor does. I’m not getting to his level,” said Rattie.