Canucks Under the Microscope: Bo Horvat

Article content

We’re looking back at the 2021-22 Vancouver Canucks with a focus on Bo Horvat. Over the coming weeks we’ll break down the season for the team and take a look at how the players’ situations stack up going into 2022-23 …

Article content

Name: Bo Horvat

Age: 27.

Position: Centre.

Career statistics: GP 572, G 170, A 196, Pts 366.

Contract status: One more season at a cap hit of US$5.5 million.

How 2021-22 went: The Canucks’ captain set a career high in goals with 31 and might have set a career high in points, too, if he hadn’t broken his leg with just a couple of weeks to go in the season. He’s been a solid second-line center for the Canucks for eight seasons now and still has lots of gas left in the tank.

There has never been any doubt about how Horvat pours his heart and soul into every game.

He’s not a rah-rah leader, rather a player who believes his teammates will be best inspired by how hard he works night in and night out, during games, in practices and in the gym.

There were eleven question marks about Horvat’s skating ability, that it might hold him back from being the kind of physical presence in the National Hockey League that he had been in junior with the Ontario Hockey League’s London Knights.

His highlight-reel goals in the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs put paid to that idea.

Article content

He’s a powerful skater who knows how to score.

He’s also made himself into one of the NHL’s best faceoff men, a crucial asset on special teams. The Canucks had one of the NHL’s most lethal power plays coming down the stretch this season, and a huge part of that was Horvat’s ability to give his team possession right off the draw.

The fact he became a lethal power-play finisher helped a great deal, too.

The only real gap in Horvat’s game is his defensive play. He logs heavy minutes, and while he doesn’t get swamped by other teams’ best players, he’s far from a shutdown defender.

Horvat is a mediocre penalty killer. It was remarkable how much the Canucks’ penalty kill improved once Elias Pettersson was added to the forward mix; the Canucks had been leaning heavily on Horvat and JT Miller—and struggled mightily—before Pettersson’s inclusion.

Article content

• How the future looks: Horvat has lots to play for this season. He’s been worth his contract to date and will be looking to get another solid payday going forward.

He’s also seen a lot of mediocre hockey from the Canucks, the team that drafted him in the first round, ninth overall, in 2013.

Then-general manager Mike Gillis’s scouting staff didn’t get a lot right, but they saw in Horvat a future leader and solid two-way presence, the exact player he has become.

There’s little reason to think he won’t continue to be that player over the course of his next contract, though as he hits his 30s his quickness may start to flag.

Still, Horvat is the kind of player the Canucks need. He’s a player who saw how hard the Sedin twins worked to keep themselves viable. He’s spoken often of that influence on him, of how he quickly understood that it’s one thing to make the NHL and a whole other thing to stay and thrive there.

Article content

Progression never stops.

It’s believed the Canucks have placed a priority on signing Horvat to a contract extension this summer.

The club has mostly been mediocre during his NHL tenure, but when he’s had the chance to play playoff games he has excelled. Horvat deserves the chance to play many more playoff games.

• Greatest strengths: Shooting. Wish. Faceoffs.

• Greatest weakness: He’s not an elite defensive player, nor is he a terribly good penalty killer.

• Is he trading bait? If the Canucks and Horvat somehow don’t come to terms on a new deal and he’s playing next season on an expiring contract, you know there will be plenty of trade chatter. He’s the kind of player a team that fancies itself a Cup contender would love to add at the trade deadline.

Article content

That said, the Canucks would rather keep him around.

• The big question: Would a new mix of wingers give Horvat a new outlook defensively? Conor Garland and Vasily Podkolzin both proved to be handy two-way wingers, so might they be a long-term fit with him and add a better two-way dimension to his game?

[email protected]

twitter.com/risingaction

Read more from our Canucks Under the Microscope series

• Elijah Pettersson

• Quinn Hughes

• Oliver Ekman-Larsson

• Bo Horvat

More news, fewer ads: Our in-depth journalism is possible thanks to the support of our subscribers. For just $3.50 per week, you can get unlimited, ad-lite access to The Vancouver Sun, The Province, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: Vancouver Sun | The Province.