With J.T. Miller now signed long-term, questions in Vancouver have now turned to the future of Bo Horvat. General manager Patrik Allvin touched on negotiations with his captain at Tuesday’s media availability.
"Bo is our captain," said Allvin. "We respect and we like Bo. We’re communicating with his camp, and we’ll see if there is a deal to be made here. "
There was no hint of frustration from Allvin – in fact, it seemed more as though Horvat’s talks had been pushed to the back burner while they dealt with Miller, and that they would now get into them. Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek discussed the situation on Sportsnet’s 32 Thoughts podcast, with the former explaining that the last he had heard was “not much going on there.” Both hosts believe that an extension will be done at some point.
Horvat, 27, has one year left on his current contract and carries a $5.5M cap hit for the 2022-23 season, after which he will become an unrestricted free agent. The No. 9 overall pick in 2013 is coming off a career-best 31-goal season (in just 70 games) and has been the team’s most consistent offensive producer with five 20+ goal seasons in his eight-year career.
How the Canucks fit Horvat into the picture is another story. As we examined recently the Canucks cap situation isn’t excellent, with Tyler Myers’ $6M hit still on the books through 2023-24 and Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s $7.26M through 2026-27, but there should be enough flexibility to add in a raise for Horvat if the team decides to do that. If they do, the question will then become how can the Canucks surround that core with enough talent to really compete in the next few years, given they are likely going to face some pain at the end of these long-term deals.
Even though a late-season surge put them extremely close to a playoff spot, the team still lost 42 games (including overtime and shootout), not exactly the number a contender can point to as a reason to spend. If they do decide to keep Horvat long-term, there is plenty of risk to the way that Allvin and president Jim Rutherford are operating. Being “stuck in the middle” – meaning good enough to avoid the top few draft slots but not good enough to really challenge for the Stanley Cup – is something that teams try to avoid at all costs. The team already has six players signed through at least 2025-26, with only Hughes under the age of 26.
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