Arizona Coyotes sign forward Aku Räty to entry-level contract
The Arizona Coyotes have signed forward prospect Aku Räty to a two-year, entry-level contract, the club announced Wednesday morning.
Räty, 21, scored 18 goals and 42 points in 53 games with Ilves Tampere in the top-tier Finnish Liiga during the 2022–23 regular season. He added one goal in 10 games as Ilves captured third place in the 2023 Liiga playoffs.
The Coyotes originally selected Räty in the fifth round (No. 151 overall) of the 2019 NHL Draft. Aku’s brother, Aatu, is a Vancouver Canucks prospect who was included in the Bo Horvat trade with the New York Islanders.
News: We have signed forward Aku Räty to a three-year, entry-level contract.
Räty was drafted by the Coyotes in the fifth round (151st overall) in the 2019 NHL Draft.https://t.co/REIU97m6TV
Räty is the second Coyotes prospect to be signed to an entry-level contract this offseason. The club signed 2022 sixth-round draft selection Maksymillian Szuber to an ELC on Monday after he helped the DEL’s Munich EHC Red Bull capture the league championship.
The Coyotes selected nine players in the 2019 NHL Draft and have now signed three of them: Victor Soderstrom, Matias Maccelli, and Räty. Notably, the club has been unable to come to terms with 2019 third-round pick and Harvard Crimson center John Farinacci, whose exclusive draft signing rights will expire on August 15.
Räty had until June 1 to agree to terms with the Coyotes before he could become an unrestricted free agent. The six-foot winger, who shoots right, is coming off a breakout year after switching Liiga teams from Karpat (with whom he had developed since his teenage years) to Ilves in the 2022 offseason.
Additionally, Räty has represented his native Finland numerous times, including at two IIHF World Junior Championships (2020, 2021). He also played for Finland at the 2018 U17 World Hockey Challenge, the 2018 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, and the 2019 U18 Worlds.
The big Coyotes prospect decision still remaining pertains to 2022 No. 3 pick Logan Cooley, who finished his freshman season at the University of Minnesota with an eye-popping 60 points in 39 games. Cooley was named a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award but the Golden Gophers fell to Quinnipiac in the National Championship game.