[dailyhive] Bo Horvat left Vancouver as a second-line centre. Three years later, the former Canucks’ captain has established himself as a first-line centre good enough for Team Canada. In terms of recognition for his play, he says: “This is as good as it gets.”

30 comments

  4. Really happy for Bo. He deserves all the success he’s had and he’s worked his ass off to get where he is. It’s just a shame because it should’ve been in Vancouver.

  8. The suffering train never ends for us canuck fans. Is it bad that I’m starting to enjoy the suffering?

  10. Makes me wonder how far we would’ve went in the 2023 post season if we had Bo as a 2c

    That Oilers series went as best as it could have, with Miller matching McDrai and actually keeping it neutral, even with Silovs in net I feel like we could’ve made the cup finals

  12. Management chose JT over Horvat…

    Still remember most folks on here wanted to keep Horvat, as JT seemed to be an antagonist with some of his teammates.

    I really liked Horvat on this team… 🙁

  13. I’m a huge fan of Horvat, great player and a great person. Yeah he’s good enough to be a first line center, but a real cup contender team he’s your second line center.

    Think about Kesler behind Henrik. Kesler could have been a top line center on most teams in the league, but you want him on a team so good that he’s on your second line.

  14. That draft where we were this close to trading Miller for Rodriguez or something ….. pain

  15. Only because the isles have no one else. Horvat has always been a low end 1C but on a contender he is a high end C2

  16. It turns out Vancouver had a 1C all along and he now only has a AAV of 8.5M…

    Classic case of labelling a player and being unable to project them into any other spot.

    Im happy for Horvat and the Islanders. Bo shouldered the weight of this market well and was rewarded with being moved out of town. I hope the Islanders can take the next step and be the dominant team out of New York.

    Horvat > Pettersson > Miller

    Who would’ve guessed?…

  17. I’m really happy for Bo for being recognized as a top end C. It was a terrible (but understandable at the time) mistake to select JT Miller over him.

  18. I know being the “told ya so” guy is viewed as a dick, but I was one of the few people that wanted to trade Miller before he signed the new contract so that we could keep Horvat instead. Wasn’t exactly the clearest choice but I was looking at it from an age and also him being the captain point of view

  19. Good for him. I wanted the Canucks to keep him and bet on the younger, homegrown talent, but here we are in a rebuild.

  20. People saying we should have kept Horvat instead of Petey or Miller need to look at the numbers. Miller had 437 points in 5.5 seasons in Vancouver, Petey 457 points in 7 seasons (including a season where he played 20 games), Horvat had 420 in 8.5 seasons. Horvat’s best season was 68 points, both Miller and Petey had 100 point seasons. If you’re looking for offensive C’s, who do you pick between the 3?

    Yeah, JT decided to derail his career, and Petey has had injury issues now which may or may not have ended his best output. But when the 3 were on the team, it was an obvious choice who the top 2 are.

  21. Happy for horvat’s success since he left Vancouver but taking horvat over Bédard to the Olympics just doesn’t make any sense. IMO

  23. Even at the time, the intuition in the heart of this sub was right to say we should keep this guy, while the brain of this sub was persuaded to let him go.

  24. For those talking about “Miller over Horvat” and whatnot..

    I think it all goes back to the trade for OEL.

    If that cap hit (along with Garland’s) doesn’t exist, and if the buyout isn’t planned, then we could have afforded to keep Miller and Horvat.

    I think the whole locker room dynamic at the end of the day was the result of losing. Winning builds culture and cures all. We saw it during 2023-24.

    We would have had Dylan Guenther, and whoever we would have picked with the 2nd and 7th round picks.

    The team could have looked at acquiring a defenseman through other means, or if we want to go even FURTHER back, Benning could have just kept Tanev. I know he’s been injured this season but dating back to 19-20′ he’s been relatively healthy.

    Another consequence of keeping both Miller and Horvat, is if they acquire a D Man like Hronek through other means, they wouldn’t have needed to spend on Lindholm, and Kuzmenko could have been viewed as a Luxury PowerPlay specialist during the playoffs, which is where he flourished in LA against EDM.

    Where the team is now is the result of many self inflicted wounds, and there’s a lot of “what-ifs”. It sucks.

  25. Honestly just so stoked to cheer for him at the Olympics. Such a shame he’s not still a Canuck

  28. Happy for Bo! He should not have been traded when we realized how bad Miller and Hughes leadership was.

  29. I miss Bo. I felt we traded the wrong guy then but had ny doubts. It certainly is the case today. Was always a good captain, happy for his success. Been rooting for islanders

  30. I still think moving Horvat was the right decision. The locker room was stale and needed to change.

    It just turns out in hindsight that Hughes, Petey, Miller, Horvat, etc. were never going to mesh and they should have cleared house right then and there.

    At the time I thought they should have moved Miller and Horvat and focused on building around the Petey and Hughes core.

    Oh well, now I am just hoping we can move on from Petey, Garland, Myers, DeBrusk, M Pettersson over the next two years and just start fresh with a new culture.

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