Just Who Is Ty Rattie

In an effort to boost the depth chart on the wing for the Edmonton Oilers, GM Peter Chiarelli decided to take a flyer on RW Ty Rattie on the free agent market early in July. Rattie played in the NHL last season with the St. Louis Blues and Carolina Hurricanes,  and with the Chicago Wolves of the AHL.
It was an odd year for the 23 year old winger as he made the Blues out of training camp only to find himself mostly stapled to the press box stools, getting in only 4 games with the team before being sent down for 22 games with the Wolves. Later he would be claimed off waivers by the Carolina Hurricanes, only managing to get into 5 games there.

So Just Who Is Ty Rattie

When researching for this article I came across a piece from Hall of Fame writer Jim Matheson and the very first line might perfectly describe the reason for this signing.

First-round draft picks often get second, third and fourth chances.

Now, Rattie wasn’t a first round pick, he was picked 32nd overall by the Blues in the 2011 draft but the quote make a lot of sense here. He was an elite offensive talent all the way through his junior hockey career.

With the Portland Winterhawks he scored 348 points in 269 regular season games and added another 95 points in 76 playoff tilts. His first year in the AHL was also quite good for a first year player as he managed 31 goals and 17 assists in 72 games.

Rattie stands at 6′ tall and tips the scales around 190lbs; he’s not a big player but neither is he truly undersized. The biggest critique of his play tends to lean toward his skating which is something he’s been said to be working on very hard this offseaso,n according to reports.

What Can We Expect?

As mentioned above Rattie is clearly a project at this time. However there is very little downside to this signing. Rattie didn’t get a fair shake with the Blues as it appears that coach Ken Hitchcock appreciated the faster skating player Oilers fans are familiar with, Magnus Pajaarvi Svensson, over Rattie when it came to shuffling players from the pressbox to the ice surface.

I would expect to see Rattie plying his trade mostly on the farm with the Bakersfield Condors this season but being one of the first to be considered call ups when there is an opening in the bottom 6 or the wing. At just 24 years old it wouldn’t serve him or the team well to be an extra forward in the NHL, best to be in the AHL working on his game and helping that team be successful.

Rattie will be an interesting play to watch through the first week or so with camp to see if coach McLellan has him on first or second team rushes and scrimmages. I would suspect to see him getting in a fair amount of pre-season action before the he heads south to California.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the video highlights of Rattie below.