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What Islanders’ Aatu Räty needs to do to remain in the NHL

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It tells you something that the Islanders had to get as deep as they did into their injury reserves before calling up Aatu Räty, but now that he is here, you have to wonder when he will be back in AHL Bridgeport.

Before we go any further, let’s stipulate: If the Islanders were fully healthy right now, Räty would likely be back in the AHL. Getting the roster back to 22 as soon as possible is imperative to maximize salary-cap space at the trade deadline, Hudson Fasching has earned a spot and if the Islanders carry seven defensemen (which, to be fair, is not a safe assumption), that would crowd out Simon Holmstrom, Ross Johnston and Räty.

But, if they felt comfortable without an extra defensemen, consider this: Räty, in his NHL debut, equaled Holmstrom’s goals total during his 14-game NHL stint and Johnston’s points total for the entire season.

To an extent, we are jousting at windmills here because it is entirely unclear when the Islanders will be healthy, or if they even will be. Semyon Varlamov, Kyle Palmieri and Cal Clutterbuck skated Wednesday. Holmstrom, Oliver Wahlstrom and Adam Pelech have yet to see the ice. That is the extent of the information available. If Pelech has a concussion, as suspected, then any timeline given would be worth the same as a shoulder shrug anyway. The knee-to-knee hit Holmstrom sustained from Florida’s Sam Bennett on Friday looked bad, but that could mean squat.

Aatu Raty #16 of the New York Islanders smiles and gets fist bumps after scoring his first NHL goal in his first career game against the Florida Panthers.
Islanders prospect Aatu Räty gets congratulations after scoring in his first career NHL game.
Getty Images

Back to Räty.

The no. 52 pick in the 2021 draft, Räty has been the most compelling prospect in the Islanders’ system since he put up 40 points in 41 games for Jukurit in the Finnish Liiga last season. He starred at the World Junior Championships over the summer and played well in 23 AHL games at Bridgeport before his call-up Friday.

Then he went and scored against the Panthers.

Maybe more encouraging than the goal, Räty has not looked overwhelmed on NHL ice. He may not be noticeable on every shift, but he is playing mistake-free hockey and looking as if he should be out there. That counts for something, especially for a 20-year-old who had played just 31 combined games on smaller, North American rinks before making his NHL debut.

Whether it counts enough to earn an extended stay is, at least right now, beside the point. The Islanders’ myriad injuries currently require him to be with the club, and that will add more data points.

New York Islanders center Aatu Raty (16) and Pittsburgh Penguins left wing Brock McGinn (23) battle for a loose puck during the second period at UBS Arena.
Aatu Räty’s skating ability, questioned coming in, has held up in his brief stint with the Islanders.
USA TODAY Sports

For what it’s worth, Lane Lambert noted an improvement in Räty’s skating — the quality most evaluators agreed needed work from Räty — following Wednesday’s practice.

“His skating for me has never really been an issue,” Lambert said. “He gets from point A to point B. Part of him getting there is his intelligence level as well. I think he’s been fine. Continued working on it, it’s definitely paying off for him.”

Besides potentially being crowded out, the other issue with keeping Räty on the roster longer-term is positional. The Islanders have four centers they like, and Räty’s preference (as well as the organization’s) is that he plays down the middle. On Tuesday, the answer to that riddle was to play Casey Cizikas on Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s right wing with Zach Parise on the left. That line played 9:04 in the 5-1 win over Pittsburgh and dominated the stat sheet with a 94.97 expected goals percentage, a 9-2 shot margin and a 3-0 high-danger chance margin.

Cizikas in particular looked comfortable playing on the walls and retrieving the puck, but asking him to play on the right side on a more permanent basis would mean splitting up the Identity Line. Playing Brock Nelson and Mat Barzal together on the top line would be tempting for two reasons: It pairs together the Islanders’ two best offensive players and gets Barzal, who is an abysmal 31.3 percent at the dots, off faceoffs. But Räty may not be ready for top-nine minutes yet — which surely went into the calculation to move Cizikas over.

Casey Cizikas #53 of the New York Islanders hit Jake Guentzel #59 of the Pittsburgh Penguins into the boards during the second period at the UBS Arena on December 27, 2022.
Casey Cizikas moved from center to the wing to accommodate Aatu Räty then laid a hit on the Penguins’ Jake Guentzel.
Getty Images

“If they want me to move there, I’ll move there,” Cizikas said about the possibility of shifting to the wing. “If they want me back at center, I’ll be back at center. That doesn’t matter to me.”

If that is a possibility, though, Cizikas said Lambert has yet to bring it up.

Right now, the onus is on Räty to force the coaching staff to answer that question. Fasching almost certainly has done that — it would at this point border on malpractice to deny him a roster spot once the team is healthy. Räty is still in the middle of his tryout. To get to that point, he’ll need to ace it.

Regarding the power play

Lambert’s tone got almost defensive Wednesday when asked if he had considered changing up the power-play units. Besides one spot in the second unit, the other nine have belonged to the same players all season, although there has been some variance in who’s played on which unit.

That doesn’t sound like it’s changing.

New York Islanders head coach Lane Lambert watches from the bench during an NHL game against the Arizona Coyotes
Lane Lambert does not sound inclined to change the Islanders’ power-play personnel despite an 0-for-25 rut.
Getty Images

“We generated a lot of chances in Arizona, we’ve generated some good-quality scoring chances over that stretch where we haven’t scored and that’s coming off a stretch where we were really good and it was those same guys,” Lambert said. . “So it’s ebbs and flows a little bit, and those guys can get the job done. We have full confidence in that.”

It is, admittedly, hard to buy that the current 0-for-25 stretch is a personnel issue. Three of the forwards who didn’t get power-play time on Tuesday were Cizikas, Fasching and Matt Martin, a trio that has combined for three career power-play goals. The fourth was Wahlstrom, who got knocked out of the game after 24 seconds.

Still, mixing and matching the units could be in order. Zero-for-25 is plainly unacceptable — the Isles went into Wednesday night ranked 26th in conversion rate league-wide at 18.35. Even on Tuesday in an otherwise close to perfect game, they struggled to pass the puck crisply at five-on-four. In less domineering performances, the power play has leaked momentum and taken the crowd out of the game.

Lambert is right that the Isles have gone through positive stretches on the power play, but nothing about it looks comfortable right now. That has to change.

What would a healthy Islanders lineup look like?

New York Islanders forward Hudson Fasching, left, and New York Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider vie for the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game on Dec.  22, 2022.
The fate of forward Hunter Fasching, here battling with the Rangers’ Braden Schneider, is one question for when the Islanders return their injured players to the lineup.
AP

Obviously, not the same as when Kyle Palmieri went down with an injury on Nov. 21. So let’s indulge in the thought exercise, even if it’s not clear when the answer will come to fruition.

Defense

Adam Pelech-Ryan Pulock

Alexander Romanov-Noah Dobson

Sebastian Aho-Scott Mayfield

Forwards

Josh Bailey-Mathew Barzal-Kyle Palmieri

Anders Lee-Brock Nelson-Anthony Beauvillier

Zach Parise-Jean-Gabriel Pageau-Hudson Fasching

Matt Martin-Casey Cizikas-Cal Clutterbuck

Scratches: Oliver Wahlstrom, Parker Wotherspoon

Maybe I am overreacting to Fasching’s emergence, but I think he’s earned a chance to be in the everyday lineup. The question is: At whose expense? Beauvillier has played well since returning from injury, and Wahlstrom had scored just once in 14 games before getting hurt. That said, you could make arguments in any direction here — including to sit Palmieri or to break up the fourth line. Nothing should be set in stone.

It’s getting more and more difficult to see Ross Johnston sticking on the roster as more and more AHL call-ups are inserted into the lineup over him. Robin Salo has gotten benched for Wotherspoon and is waivers-exempt. An AHL stint may not be the worst thing for the 24-year-old, and Wotherspoon has looked fine as a fill-in.

It wouldn’t be shocking to see the Islanders go with six defensemen and carry an extra forward, though. That would open the door to keep either one of the prospects or Johnston — a great presence in the dressing room whom the Islanders obviously see value in, even if they aren’t playing him — on the roster. Again, it tells you something that the Islanders were willing to go to the West Coast with just six defensemen a couple of weeks ago.

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