New York Islanders Acquire Horvat From Vancouver For Beauvillier, Raty, 2024 First-Round Pick
[ad_1]
![]()
Photo: NHL.com
Photo: NHL.comThe New York Islanders announced that they have acquired center Bo Horvat, who can become an unrestricted free agent after this season, from the Vancouver Canucks for left-wing Anthony Beauvillier, center Aatu Raty, and a 2024 first-round pick (which is top-12 protected).
Horvat: No extension talks with @NYIslanders yet. “We’ll see if we can something done, but I’ll leave it up to Pat [Morris] to handle that.”
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) January 31, 2023
Horvat, 27, ranks eighth in the NHL with 31 goals and is tied for 21st with 54 points in 49 games. His goal total is tied with his career-high set in 70 games last season while Horvat, who counts just $5.5 million against the NHL salary cap, is just seven points behind his career-best point total set in 82 games during the 2018-19 campaign. Vancouver retained $1.375 million of Horvat’s remaining contract.
Bo Horvat, traded to NYI, is a top six scoring centre with a great finishing touch between the hashmarks. Generally strong in most areas of the game, although this has obviously been a huge outlier finishing season for him. #Isles pic.twitter.com/bNosCfekl0
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) January 30, 2023
New York finally gets the goal scorer they need as they rank 28th in the NHL with an average of 2.77 goals-per-game and 24th with a 17.7% power-play scoring rate since captain John Tavares left after the 2017-18 season. The team is currently 25th (2.85) and 31st (15.5%) in those respective categories this season.
The addition should help improve the penalty kill, where New York already ranks third (83%), as Horvat has averaged 1:45 (fifth among Vancouver forwards) shorthanded this season.
However, this deal carries risk for New York. If Horvat leaves in July and the team, who is currently two points back of a Stanley Cup Playoff spot with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres (who they are trying to pass in the wild-card race) both having games in hand, fails to qualify for the postseason, this deal could backfire.
Trade rumors swirled around Beauvillier, who has just nine goals and 20 points in 49 games, since the offseason. The 25-year-old has seen his production decline over the past two seasons.
Anthony Beauvillier, acquired by VAN, is a middle-six shoot-first offensive winger whose stock has fallen along with his finishing in the past two seasons. #Canucks pic.twitter.com/3ggfvN36WF
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) January 30, 2023
Raty, the 52nd overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, has two goals in 12 NHL games this season and seven goals and 15 points in 27 AHL contests.
Vancouver, who is currently 14 points out of a postseason spot at 20-26-3 (.439 points percentage), is expected to be a major seller ahead of the NHL Trade Deadline at 3 PM ET on March 3.
Needless to say, this trade caught NHL All-Star Game organizers a little off-guard. They’re not quite sure yet how to handle Pacific Division center-now-New York Islander Bo Horvat in the context of the event.
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) January 30, 2023
By Harrison Brown
[ad_2]
Source link
