The Flyers are still searching for anything that can jolt a team that has opened 0-5-3, and the front office has already started working the margins. Philadelphia added veteran free agent Michael Bunting last week and turned to Jack Studnicka over the weekend when Carl Grundstrom came out of the picture. Neither move is the kind that changes a season, but the Flyers are clearly pushing the buttons available to them before they reach the bigger emergency options.
Now there’s another name sitting in the waiver wire mix: Aatu Raty.
The Vancouver Canucks put Raty on waivers Tuesday afternoon after finding no trade market for the center, making him available to any team willing to absorb his $850,000 cap hit and keep him on an NHL roster. For a Flyers team that could use more help down the middle, he’s at least worth a hard look.
Raty was a second-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, going 52nd overall to the Islanders before being moved to Vancouver in the Bo Horvat trade. His NHL production hasn’t matched the raw projection yet - 29 points, split between 14 goals and 15 assists, in 118 career games - but there are still some reasons to think there’s more to work with.
The offensive numbers in the AHL stand out more. From 2023 to 2025, Raty put up 92 points in 115 games there, and his frame adds something Philadelphia doesn’t have enough of in the middle: he’s 6-foot-2.
He also brings a real edge in one area the Flyers badly need help with. Raty has won 59.6% of his career faceoffs, including 60.5% in 66 games last season.
No, he’s not walking in and fixing the Flyers’ top six. He probably wouldn’t even be a third-line center on this roster. But after Studnicka was called up and took an offensive-zone penalty in his first period with the Flyers, there’s something to be said for giving a different option a chance.
The Tocchet factor is what makes this even more interesting. Rick Tocchet coached Raty in Vancouver during the 2024-25 season, and the two already have a track record. Raty played 33 games under Tocchet that year and finished with 11 points.
Tocchet has spoken highly of him before, saying: “When we first got him, his skating was just OK,” Tocchet said of Räty back in 2024. “The development guys and the Abbotsford guys did a helluva job with him, because to me he’s a different player than he was last year. He had a good year last year, but I see another level.
“He looks fast out there with his skating. And every drill he does, he goes 100 per cent.
Even in the morning skate, I told him he had to slow down a bit because you want to save it for tonight. I like that attitude from a young kid.”
Raty began that season on the NHL roster and assisted on the Canucks’ opener, but his role bounced around. He was sent down after posting four points in 20 games while averaging 10:31 of ice time per game.
Later in the year, he earned another recall and flashed more offense, scoring five goals and adding two assists over his final 12 games. Much of that stretch came alongside Dakota Joshua and Kiefer Sherwood.
Tocchet’s view of that line was clear in April 2025: “That was a positive line for us,” Tocchet said in April 2025. “Rats is a young kid, and in the couple of early games, he made some mistakes, but I’m not seeing those mistakes as much now.
I think having those two wingers has really helped him. I’ve been playing that line and taking draws in our own end, some minutes where we need them to go against a top line.
That’s a big thing for me if we can get that line to play against top lines.”
For Philadelphia, the appeal is straightforward. Raty could slide into the bottom six, help on faceoffs, and give the Flyers another NHL option instead of leaning on Studnicka as the AHL-NHL shuttle piece.
And while any player with a Tocchet connection is bound to raise an eyebrow, the coach helped Christian Dvorak revive his game last season, and Raty has enough tools to make him a worthwhile waiver claim.
He’s not a cure-all. He’s not going to rescue the Flyers by himself.
But when a team is stuck this far down the ladder, every useful body matters. Raty might be the kind of pickup that Carl Grundstrom was last season, only with the added value of being one of the better faceoff men around.
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