I definitely like Raty as a player and think he's a likely first rounder at this point, but he hasn't impressed sufficiently to be considered a front runner for 1st overall in his draft. Someone truly in the running for that honour should have been dominant at the recent World Under 17's. You can argue that he was held back by the quality of his line-mates in that tournament, but a true first overall generally has the ability to make his line-mates better, especially at that level of play. Besides, when he found himself on the power-play with guys like Hirvonen and Suni, he didn't look that much better.
Now, you can argue that was a short tournament with unfamiliar line-mates, but his Nuorten SM-Liiga number don't scream "1st Overall" either. He's averaged just 13:33 in ice time and sits 8th on his team in points/game. I'll grant you that it's probably not reasonable to expect him to produce the way Kakko(who averaged 20 minutes per game) did last year, because his junior coaches don't appear to consistently give any forwards, even the team leaders, more than 18:30 per game, if that. He's also 10 months younger than Kakko was last year, for what it's worth. Thus far just one of his points has come on the power play. If he were really a first overall-calibre talent, I think he could more consistently work his way onto the power play of a team lacking in top-end talent.
Since the Under-17's, he's been moved to centre(his natural position) and given a new, more skilled winger, so it will be interesting to see how he develops.
