{"id":384069,"date":"2026-01-01T03:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T03:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/384069\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T03:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T03:06:11","slug":"islanders-bo-horvat-in-disbelief-after-making-canadas-olympic-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/384069\/","title":{"rendered":"Islanders’ Bo Horvat in ‘disbelief’ after making Canada’s Olympic roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bo Horvat\u2019s push to make Team Canada\u2019s roster started when he went to World Championships in May and ended Wednesday morning when he got a call from assistant general manager Don Sweeney, telling him congratulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many emotions going through my mind of pride and joy,\u201d Horvat said on a Zoom call Wednesday after Hockey Canada announced its 25-man Olympic roster with his name on it<\/a>. \u201cJust honestly disbelief, too, at some point. Still hasn\u2019t really sunk in yet. I\u2019m just so honored and privileged to be in this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the way back on last season\u2019s breakup day, Horvat said if he got the chance to go to Worlds, he\u2019d take it, in part to burnish his Olympics case. After being well on the outside of Team Canada\u2019s 4 Nations picture, he needed to do everything he could to make it to Milan.<\/p>\n

\"NewBo Horvat skates during warm up prior to the game before the Islanders\u2019 win over the Devils on Nov. 10, 2025 at Prudential Center. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n

And over the next eight months, Horvat fulfilled that mandate. He had eight points in six games at the World Championships. He started the regular season on a scoring tear. He took a leading role on a resurgent Islanders penalty kill. <\/p>\n

He said again and again that making this team in what is likely his only chance to play at the Olympics \u2014 Horvat will be 34 when the 2030 Games get underway in Nice [France] \u2014 would mean everything to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted it bad. I wanted to represent our country. I wanted to wear the maple leaf,\u201d Horvat said. \u201cI was just trying to do whatever I could to, one, help our team win, the Islanders win. Also just to make it hard on [Hockey Canada] and make their decision tough. Kind of make my stamp of what I could bring to Hockey Canada. Thankfully it didn\u2019t go unnoticed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s brass scouted the Islanders extensively to watch Horvat and Matthew Schaefer. Horvat ultimately showed them enough to make it as one of four forwards on the roster who weren\u2019t on the 4 Nations squad, with Sam Bennett, Travis Konecny and Seth Jarvis being dropped.<\/p>\n

The decision to drop Bennett, whose goal for Canada forced overtime in the 4 Nations final, might have been the most controversial the management group led by GM Doug Armstrong made. <\/p>\n

\"Jean-GabrielBo Horvat celebrates his goal during the shootout in the Islanders\u2019 1-0 win over the Kraken at UBS Arena on Nov. 23, 2025. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Tom Wilson\u2019s inclusion on the roster, though, blunted some of the need for Bennett\u2019s skill set as a heavy agitator and cleared the way for both Horvat and Montreal\u2019s Nick Suzuki to be included.<\/p>\n

While Horvat said Sweeney\u2019s conversation with him Wednesday didn\u2019t touch on role, it\u2019s likely he\u2019ll play in the bottom six and perhaps get penalty-kill minutes. <\/p>\n

Armstrong said Horvat\u2019s ability to play multiple positions and exceptional faceoff numbers were key factors in his selection.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOn the ice from Long Island\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what they tell me to do, I\u2019ll do it,\u201d Horvat said. \u201cIf it\u2019s cleaning water bottles, I\u2019ll do anything to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bo Horvat\u2019s push to make Team Canada\u2019s roster started when he went to World Championships in May and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5110],"tags":[3669,5,122,3328,159,5190,5189,4,2602,43,2787],"class_list":{"0":"post-384069","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-bo-horvat","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-islanders","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-islanders","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkislanders","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-olympics","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-winter-olympics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115817636552350218","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}