via TSN,
It appears the Vancouver Canucks may be looking to move captain Bo Horvat ahead of the NHL trade deadline.
TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun, citing a report on Monday by CHEK's Rick Dhaliwal, tweeted that the Canucks made Horvat's camp a new contract offer a couple of weeks ago that was rejected and that the team is focused on the trade market between now and the deadline on March 3.
Horvat, 27, is in the final year of a six-year contract he signed with the Canucks as a restricted free agent in 2017 and carries a cap hit of $5.5 million. He will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
He has 20 goals and 29 points in 28 games this season. Horvat scored a career-high 31 goals last season and posted 52 points in 70 games as Vancouver missed the playoffs for the sixth time in the past seven seasons.
Horvat, who was named captain of the Canucks in 2019, has 190 goals and 395 points in 600 career games.
from Thomas Drance and Rick Dhaliwal of The Athletic,
Not only is this trending in a direction where a Horvat trade prior to the NHL trade deadline is likely, but the club is actively engaged in listening to offers on Horvat.
As The Athletic has previously reported, the club is ideally looking for a package including multiple young players ideally centremen and right-handed defensemen in a Horvat trade. The club is, for the moment anyway, poised to be reluctant to take back money to facilitate a trade or to retain salary although everything is negotiable in high-stakes trade talks.
The club has not, to this point, granted permission to Horvats agent to discuss a possible extension with clubs interested in trading for Horvat. Considering the volume of expected interest in Horvat who is a face-off specialist, power-play ace and lethal goal scorer its likely such permission wont be granted at all. That means that Horvat is likely to be dealt as a pure rental.
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Waiting with baited breath to see the GM who will offer up "multiple young players ideally centremen and right-handed defensemen " for a 'rental' who will want more than his current $5.5 mil per year.
There aren't going to be many teams who can afford him NEXT season. His cap hit this year does make him a good rental, though.
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