A few young skaters managed to crack the opening night roster for the Blues, but Ty Rattie wasn’t one of them. Instead, Rattie is headed back down to the AHL. Not long ago, Rattie was widely regarded as the team’s best prospect, but to date he has struggled to make an impression worthy of more NHL time. Is it time to worry? What should fans expect from Rattie moving forward?
For starters, every Rattie conversation needs to begin with the acknowledgement that expectations were always way too high. Rattie did rattle off two 100+ point seasons in the OHL, but those numbers are hardly a fair barometer to gauge a player’s future.
With that out of the way, the more accurate measurement would be Rattie’s efforts in the AHL. In 2013-14, he scored 31 goals in 72 games. Last year, he managed 21 goals in 59 games. Pretty solid numbers which earned Rattie some NHL time last year. Unfortunately, that time didn’t go too well (two assists in 11 games), but he wasn’t exactly placed in a position to succeed. Rattie skated on a lower line and wasn’t exactly surrounded with talent. The experiment ended and Rattie’s brief NHL exposure wasn’t very impressive.
This year, the Blues are apparently turning a new leaf and eager to welcome young talent into the roster. Rattie wasn’t bad in preseason (three assists in four games), but he couldn’t best Robby Fabbri. That’s not to say his time won’t come, but to date his timing hasn’t been great. Fabbri looked that good in camp and there were only so many roster spots available. Rattie’s demotion is less surprising than Chris Butler’s or Petteri Lindbohm’s.
Rattie shouldn’t be written off quite yet. Some have labeled him as a bust now that Fabbri has won a spot heading into the new year, but that line of thinking is about as irrational as the thinking that placed too big of an emphasis on his OHL numbers.
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