See more MLHS in Google Add MLHS as a preferred source + Add The Maple Leafs completed a trade on Thursday evening, sending Jacob Quillan and Brandon Buhr to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Aatu Räty. 54

MLHS player card

Aatu Räty 🇫🇮

C · Shoots: L · 6 ft 2 in · 204 lb

Age: 23 · Born 2002-11-14 · Oulu, FIN

Draft: 2021 · Round 2 · 52nd overall (New York Islanders)
Contract: $850,000 (2026–27) · Expires 2027 (RFA)

NHL career · regular season

118GP 14 (10)G 15 (11)A 29 (21)PTS -7+/- 1.0SOG/GP

Figures in brackets are 84-game scoring paces.

48.7%5v5 CF% 45.4%5v5 GF% 0.25PTS/GP 59.1%FO%

11:07TOI/GP 10:24EVTOI/GP 0:11PPTOI/GP 0:32PKTOI/GP

2026–27 NHL regular season

4GP1G0A1PTS-2+/- 1.0SOG/GP

46.9%5v5 CF% 20.0%5v5 GF% 0.25PTS/GP 56.8%FO%

10:10TOI/GP 9:40EVTOI/GP0:10PPTOI/GP0:20PKTOI/GP

Just a day earlier, Räty cleared waivers. Trading for him accomplishes two things, and the first isn’t the contract spot exchange. By acquiring a player who has already passed through waivers, they can now keep him in the AHL. If they claimed the player instead, they’d have to keep him on the NHL roster, and if they wanted to send him down, he’d have to go on waivers again. Trading for a player who has already cleared bypasses this problem, letting them start Raty off their NHL roster (and making him waiver-exempt for the next 30 days/10 NHL games if he were recalled).

Perhaps most importantly, though, is the contract spot the Leafs opened up. They were the only team in the league at the 50-contract maximum. Some sort of minor transaction to clear that logjam was always likely, and now they’ve freed up a slot.

Naturally, we will now wait to see if another domino falls in the form of a defenseman acquisition, given Chris Tanev’s week-to-week injury.

As for the players exchanged, there are a few things to consider. All three were born in 2002, but Räty is technically the youngest as a November birth. He’s the only one of the three who was drafted, and he’s played the most NHL games, including starting this season with the Canucks (and even scoring a goal).

Räty was a second-round pick in 2021 and was once highly touted as a key piece of the return in the trade that sent Bo Horvat to the Islanders. While he has some skill, his skating has held him back from really carving out a full-time role, and to date, it has remained one of the big knocks on his game. He owns a good shot, is a reasonable defensive center, and is an elite faceoff man: over 118 NHL games, Räty is a career 59.1 percent in the faceoff dot.

It’s never a bad idea to stash centers on the depth chart just in case.

Heading the other way, Jacob Quillan has played center, but he was playing left wing for the Marlies this season and was off to a slow start, going pointless in four games. He also moved to left wing in the Leafs’ preseason. Unlike Räty, he does have some wheels, but we never really got a proper look at him during last season’s mess, which was a shame. He could still carve out a depth/energy role with his skating. It’s a shame he never got a proper look when the team was terrible; instead, he was saddled with poor linemates on the fourth line and barely played. His linemates actually improved when he was sent down to the AHL last season.

Brandon Buhr is a former college free agent whom the Leafs signed last season (we posted a full scouting report on him here). He is already 24 and is just starting out in the AHL, but he does have two points in five games and offers an appealing combination of size, skating, and shooting. Buhr is a North Vancouver native whom the Canucks tried to sign last season, but the Leafs beat them out in the sweepstakes. They are high on him, and it’s likely a big reason they made this trade despite taking on the extra contract spot.

Considering how poor the Canucks are, both players have clear paths to getting some NHL looks.

There could also be a subtle nod to Luke Haymes hidden in this trade. He centered Quillan in preseason, is a year younger, has gotten off to a much better start in the AHL (four points in four games), and showed well in the NHL last season.

Räty is also viable NHL center depth, which a team can always use more of. We just saw John Tavares miss a game and the domino effect of reshuffling from there. Options down the middle the team can call on are more than just a nice-to-have.

It was important for the Leafs to open a contract spot, but it will be interesting to see whether either Quillan or Buhr can carve out an NHL role. Räty has some utility to at least make it a hockey trade and not a straight-up contract dump. He has a real chance of being the best player in this trade.

Of note, though, the Leafs were maxed out at 50 SPCs through their own doing. This wasn’t an inherited problem. Now they’ve cleaned it up, added a bit more depth down the middle, and given themselves some extra wiggle room to address a clear need on defense.