Canucks offseason centre trade targets: The return of Bo Horvat

The New York Islanders are in a bit of a managerial quagmire right now. And we’re not talking Quahog neighbours.

Here’s the situation: at the conclusion of the 2024/25 season, Islanders ownership finally moved on from 82-year-old general manager Lou Lamoriello by informing him that they would not be renewing his contract.

Or did they?

The latest scuttlebutt is that ownership still wants Lamoriello to stick around in an ‘advisory’ role. And as a result of that, they’re reportedly having a tough time finding anyone willing to become their new GM. It’s not hard to see why – who really wants to be in charge of a hockey team that still very much appears to be influenced by one of the most draconian managers to ever do it.

The point of bringing this up is not to crap on the NYI, but to highlight how uncertain their future is. From a front office perspective, they’re currently rudderless, and they’ve also been rendered a little directionless by the odd disparity of their roster.

On the one hand, the Islanders have a collection of aging-but-still-effective veterans like Anders Lee (34), Ryan Pulock (30), Adam Pelech (30), and Ilya Sorokin (29) – and, yes, the guy this article is about. They’ve also got a younger core featuring names like Noah Dobson (25), Maxim Tsyplakov (26), and Alexander Romanov (25). Centre Mathew Barzal (28 in a couple weeks), who we already wrote about as a trade target earlier this offseason, fits somewhat awkwardly in between those groups.

But then there’s the true Islanders youth movement. Top prospects like Calum Ritchie and Cole Eiserman are arriving soon, and their impact will no doubt be surpassed by whomever the Islanders select with the first overall selection – which they recently won in the Draft Lottery – at the 2025 NHL Entry Draft.

Depending on who they’re finally able to hire as GM, the Islanders could go in a few directions from here. One of the most likely scenarios seems to be a retool around their two younger cohorts of players, which could result in the selling off of the older veterans for future-based returns.

And under that scenario, one can’t help but wonder about a reunion between the Vancouver Canucks and former captain Bo Horvat.

The Player

Horvat, like most of that older Islanders core, just turned 30 in April. But he continues to be a top-level NHL goal-scorer and two-way centre all rolled into one package.

In 2022/23, the year of his trade to Long Island, Horvat put up a career-high 38 goals and 70 points in 79 games between the Canucks and Islanders.

The next season, he posted 33 goals and 68 points in 81 games, all for the Islanders.

That actually makes his 2024/25 season of 28 goals and 57 points in 81 games the first time in six years that Horvat hasn’t operated at a 30-goal-or-greater pace. And he just barely missed it, amidst a tumultuous NYI campaign.

This makes Horvat one of the most consistent scorers in the NHL, period. That’s certainly something that the Canucks could use on their side, again.

But let’s talk about the practicalities of a Horvat reacquisition before we get too excited about the possibility.

The Cost

Return-wise, we have to imagine that if the Islanders are looking to trade Horvat, it’s because they’re refocusing on their younger core. That probably means they’re looking for primarily picks and prospects coming back. And while that’s not ideal for the Canucks, perhaps there is something they can put together.

We might draw inspiration from the JT Miller trade here. Miller was a significantly more productive centre, but he saw his trade value decreased by an off-ice situation and a contract that carried him into his late 30s. There are no rumours of any ill will between Horvat and any Islanders, but his contract does pay him an average of $8.5 million until the age of 36. That can’t help but to bring his value down a little, at least from a leaguewide perspective.

For the Canucks, however, that same contract might not be a huge stumbling block. Not if they’re primarily interested in putting together the best team possible over the next two seasons specifically, either to convince Quinn Hughes to extend or to simply make the most of the time they have left with him. From that short-term perspective, Horvat still has immense value.

We have to imagine the asking price starts with the 15^th overall, which is to be expected. It’s not terribly far off from the value the Canucks got back from the Islanders in the first Horvat trade, which was a (then unprotected) first round pick that wound up 17^th overall in 2023, along with a prospect in Aatu Räty and a cap dump in Anthony Beauvillier.

Could the offer be as simple as the 15^th overall and a ‘B’ prospect from the Canucks’ cupboard?

That depends. We could see multiple teams in on Horvat’s services with the cap going up like it is, and that could raise the price beyond the precedent. But not, we think, by too terribly much. A price-tag of a first round pick and some additional, reasonable sweeteners should be workable for the Canucks for a centre of this calibre. If that’s all it takes, a Horvat reacquisition should very much be under consideration.

There may be some intangible awkwardness to deal with here, but that’s not certain, either. It was clear at the time of that first trade that the Canucks were going to deal one of Horvat or Miller, and they chose to deal Horvat. Being dumped by the team you captained might have resulted in some sourness from Horvat, but that one post-game comment aside, we haven’t seen much hint of it.

There were some rumours of tension between Horvat and Miller in the dressing room, but if that was the case, it’s not really a factor anymore. By all accounts, Horvat got on well with Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes, and Hughes has spoken at length about how Horvat’s leadership informed his own approach to the captaincy.

Horvat does possess a full no-trade clause, so he’d have to be willing to come back to Vancouver. But we don’t necessarily see that being an obstacle. If they can turn it around, the Canucks are closer to competing than the Islanders. Horvat laid down some serious roots here that are probably mostly still in place.

One the whole, it’s, perhaps, not as awkward as one might think. And it wouldn’t be the first time the Canucks reacquired a captain that they traded to Long Islander, and that worked out just fine, didn’t it?

The Fit

In this case, the fit isn’t even hypothetical. We know Horvat works here. He’s a power play specialist, and his presence in the bumper slot has been missed ever since his departure. He’s a strong 2C that can take pressure off Pettersson at both ends of the ice, while also fostering a more positive working relationship.

Horvat is a goal-scoring centre, which is a rare enough commodity as is, but might be especially valuable for the Canucks if they lose Brock Boeser, their top sniper. Having Horvat around to score goals ensures that the pressure isn’t entirely on the likes of Jake DeBrusk and Jonathan Lekkerimäki.

In terms of the contract, we’ll note that the Canucks were recently entirely comfortable having Miller signed to a very similar deal to an even older age. Obviously, things happened that made that untenable, but those factors don’t really apply to Horvat. And $8.5 million is going to make up an ever-decreasing percentage of the cap ceiling, anyway. It’s already a step below true 1C money.

Horvat would make the Canucks a much stronger team over the next two seasons. And after that, it really all comes down to Hughes anyway. Extend Hughes, and the team remains in competitive mode and probably doesn’t mind Horvat continuing to be around at that price, even if he starts slowing down. Move on from Hughes (or be moved on from), and the team enters some form of rebuild or retool anyway, at which point Horvat could slide into that aging mentor role.

What seemed like a pipe-dream at first might actually have some sand to it. Take away the history, and Horvat would stand out as a somewhat obvious trade target for the Canucks this offseason. And if the history doesn’t really matter as much as we think it does, then maybe Horvat is just an obvious trade target for the Canucks this offseason.

Price-tag pending, of course.

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