St. Louis Blues: Adding Ty Rattie Much Ado About Nothing

In case you missed it, the St. Louis Blues added Ty Rattie to their postseason roster. However, it’s not exactly exciting news

When I say it is not exactly exciting news, that’s because it means nothing. He’s not going to get to play unless there is a string of injuries. At least not yet.

When the news first came down, there were several reactions. One was wondering whether someone had gotten injured and we were not informed right away.

While that is always a possibility given the intensity of the playoffs, it is not the case. There are surely people on the Blues’ roster that are banged up but everyone is available and, with the exception of the swapping of Steve Ott and Ryan Reaves, will be part of the team for the foreseeable future.

Ty Rattie isn’t going to benefit much from only one injury or even two either. Unless it’s someone from a top line, which no Blues fan would want, he’s not first in line. Reaves/Ott will continue to swap depending on who Ken Hitchcock wants in there and Dmitrij Jaskin and Magnus Paajarvi are also waiting for their turn.

One of the other reactions was that Rattie might be brought up in an attempt to bump up scoring for a team that has struggled to get pucks past the Chicago defense. Again, nothing is beyond the realm of possibility due to it being the playoffs and Hitchcock feeling the heat of facing his final playoff push but this just isn’t the case.

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Rattie is a good player, but you don’t take a rookie that hasn’t even seen a lot of NHL games this season and throw them in the fire of the playoffs. Paajarvi and Jaskin are also ahead of him. Fans may have their misgivings about both of those players and Rattie had some good showings in his few games in the big leagues, but Hitchcock values experience and would be more likely to insert one of those other two before using Rattie.

The bottom line of Rattie being brought up is simply to keep him skating and practicing. The Chicago Wolves missed the AHL playoffs and the Blues had an available spot with playoff rosters slightly expanded. All he’s going to do is practice though.

Rattie has the potential to be a solid player in the future. His AHL stats have gone down each year, foing from 31 to 21 to 17 goals (including two goals in his final AHL regular season game this year), but much of that is due to his increased time with the Blues. Rattie played 11 games with St. Louis last season and 13 this. He was also a healthy scratch for awhile too, which kept him out of the AHL.

He finished the NHL season with four goals and six points and provided some pop in the games he did play in. He was a welcome addition when the team was riddled with injury. Even so, it’s not quite his time yet.

That’s not to say that he couldn’t fit in the lineup given a different matchup. Maybe facing Dallas or Minnesota might get him a game. As long as the opponent is Chicago though, we won’t see the youngster in the lineup. He’s just here to practice.

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It is a good sign for his future that he was called up though. The Blues could easily have let him take his exit interview with the Wolves and just prepare for next season. Instead they want him to get used to the big league club and at least experience the playoff atmosphere, if not play in it.

Blues fans are waiting on this guy. I think a combination of him and Robby Fabbri with a good playmaking center would be fantastic. It’s just not going to happen right now.

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