When the Islanders swung the 2023 Bo Horvat deal, there was plenty of debate about what they gave up. Now, with Aatu Raty having landed on waivers and then been traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, the move looks even more one-sided than it did at the time.
Horvat arrived in Long Island after the Canucks hit a contract stalemate with their captain. Rather than risk losing him for nothing, Vancouver sent him east in a trade that caught Horvat off guard. He had believed his side and Canucks management could still find common ground.
For the Islanders, though, it has been a clear win. Horvat is now the captain in Long Island and the center of the franchise’s identity.
The return package, meanwhile, keeps shrinking in value.
Anthony Beauvillier never found his footing in Vancouver and was later moved to the Chicago Blackhawks for a fifth-round pick. The first-rounder the Canucks got in the deal was later sent to the Detroit Red Wings in the Filio Hronek trade.
Vancouver landed a quality defenseman there, though Hronek is not technically part of the Horvat deal, even if the Canucks used that pick to acquire him. The Red Wings used that selection on defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka.
That leaves Raty as the name that still matters most in the original trade.
He was the real prize for Vancouver, a second-round pick with top-six upside and one of the Islanders’ best prospects at the time. The Canucks viewed him as the player who could eventually follow Horvat’s path in the lineup.
Instead, Raty’s time in Vancouver never took off the way the organization hoped. He did help lead the Abbotsford Canucks to the AHL Calder Cup in 2025, but that momentum didn’t carry over to the NHL. Last season he finished with 14 points in 66 games during a rough year for the Canucks.
This season, first-year coach Manny Malhotra, who also coached him in Abbotsford, had seen enough. Raty went on waivers and ultimately ended up with the Maple Leafs.
Toronto’s motivation was straightforward. The Leafs had maxed out their 50 NHL contract slots, so they sent two players to Vancouver to create the flexibility they needed. One player in, one contract spot opened up - that was the whole point of the move.
There’s still a chance Islanders fans could see Raty back in the NHL, but that feels unlikely right now. For the moment, his fall from grace only makes the Horvat trade look more like robbery by the day. And it still leaves you wondering whether Raty would have hit his stride if he had stayed on Long Island.
In Other News...
Islanders Grind Out A Win That Created A New Worry
The Islanders left Toronto with a 4-1 win and a reminder that a hard-earned road victory can still come with a cost. Anthony Duclair, Bo Horvat and Simon Holmstrom all scored, Ilya Sorokin stopped 28 shots, and New York spent most of the night managing the game with a shortened bench after losing Cal Ritchie and Matias Maccelli in the opening period.
The result was encouraging in the moment, especially after the Islanders absorbed the early blows and still controlled enough of the night to put the game away. But the bigger concern now is how the forward group looks moving forward, because the injuries forced the team to patch together its lines on the fly and left another question hanging over an already thin lineup. [Read more 🡒]
Varlamov Just Made The Islanders Backup Goalie Decision Much Tougher
Semyon Varlamovs return to the Islanders crease has already made the backup goalie conversation more interesting than it looked a few weeks ago. In a shootout loss to Ottawa, he turned aside 18 of 21 shots in his second start of the season, a solid step forward for a veteran who has only recently gotten back into NHL game action after a long rehab from double-knee replacement.
For a team trying to settle the picture behind Ilya Sorokin, that matters. Varlamovs latest outing suggested he may have earned himself more runway with New York, even if the long-term fit still feels unresolved, and the Islanders now have a tougher call to make as they sort out who belongs in that No. 2 role. [Read more 🡒]
Islanders Are Running Out Of Time To Solve Their Biggest Problem
The Islanders have kept themselves afloat with sound team defense, but the scoring drought is starting to define the early part of their season. Pete DeBoer has been shuffling the forward group in an effort to spread offense across four lines, and the search has already touched several familiar names, including Kyle Palmieri as he works back from a knee injury and players such as Simon Holmstrom and Matias Maccelli in changing roles.
Mathew Barzals absence has only sharpened the problem, leaving the lineup short on the kind of skill that can tilt games when chances are scarce. With goal production lagging behind the rest of the structure, the Islanders are now trying to find a combination that gives them more than a strong defensive effort and a few scattered looks, because the calendar will not give them much more time to keep experimenting. [Read more 🡒]