Yeah sorry for the OT. I'll write quickly as it's a busy day. I'll let anyone decide whatever they feel is the best way to treat a young super prospect, but IMO Kärpät did everything wrong at the start of the season after Räty having a pretty promising preseason. I don't have the time to dig further, but this is the situation at the end of November 2020 after his first six games (things continued rough until much later, but this is the quickest way to provide some info):
- 5 different combinations around him in 6 played games: 9 different linamates in the 6 games (theoretical maximum 12)
- average TOI 10 minutes per game
- the team had played 13 games, of which Räty was in the popcorn section in 7 games
-no PP usage
Then they sent him to the juniors and Räty's confidence was already shattered. Some media guys were critical towards Kärpät at the time, this is one example from one of the main magazines:
https://www.is.fi/sm-liiga/art-2000007654947.html
Some quick quotes:
- Räty has given a mature impression of himself. However, it's enourmously much to demand a barely 18-year-old young player to understand why he is treated in a totally different way from other Finnish super prospects. It may be destructive to the cofidence to watch how for example 16-year-old Brad Lambert plays at the crucial moments of the games in the JYP (FEL) team and is accelerating his career in a speed lane even though his game is also far from ready.
- Now it unfortunately seems Räty has lost his confidence in the most important season of his short career and his game in the U20 hasn't been scoring points at the expected rate either. Why would Räty then need to be given more chances? It's clear the Finnish player production shows young players have taken huge steps in their development if they are, despite the early difficulties, pushed even with some force to important (responsible) roles. At the critical age a small spike in self confidence can be crucial for the player to see that he can use his strengths at the FEL level. Then the steps forward can be very clear.
Sorry for typos and language mistakes, I really have to go now and can't check what I wrote. I hope it opens the situation a bit more.
I understand some of the criticism towards how he was handled. However, I'm 90% sure that he wasn't playing that much because he just hadn't recovered from Covid. It makes no sense in any other way. Last season was tough for Kärpät and mostly it's to blame head coach. But if I'm correct about Räty having hard time recovering from Covid, he might have made just the right decision not to play him so much and move him down to juniors for easier matches. If I'm wrong and he just had bad year, some of the blame goes for the head coach as he was not played as much and rest goes to Aatu himself. But I wouldn't say that Kärpät, as an organization, failed badly with him.
I don't even bother to read those "journalist" critiques. Just speculation and trying to get the clicks. If you check out his other hockey related articles, you see what I mean. There are a few Finnish hockey journalists that have some inside info. Teemu Suvinen is not one of them. I mean I could write that kind of story but it wouldn't make it true.