One year ago from January 30, the Vancouver Canucks traded Bo Horvat to the New York Islanders in exchange for Anthony Beauvillier, Aatu Raty, and a 2023 first round pick. At the time, this seemed like a fairly even trade, but a year does a lot. While the deal involving these players looks heavily in favour of the Islanders, it is closer than it seems.
Islanders Eventually Found Success
It took Horvat a while to adjust to the Islanders and last season was a struggle. At the time of being traded, he had 31 goals and 54 points in 49 games. Since he was dealt well before the deadline, kicking off the action last season, it gave him a lot more time to get comfortable in New York. Unfortunately for the Islanders, who lost in the first round, it took a little longer than anticipated.
Horvat started off very slow and he signed a new eight-year contract on Feb. 5 of 2023, so there was not time to really see how he would fit in beforehand. Lou Lamoriello came out and said that it was too much money, but it was either sign Horvat or risk losing him at the end of the season. With his poor production in the latter half of last season, he wouldn’t have gotten $8.5 million AAV for eight years, that’s for sure. In 30 games for the Islanders when he came over, he scored just seven goals and 16 points. That carried over to one goal and two points in six playoff games. All this seemed worrisome until he settled in and allowed Mathew Barzal to really get going on the wing and find chemistry.
The 2023-24 season has been a whole different story for Horvat, but not the Islanders. While one problem in Horvat’s lack of production was solved and he has 20 goals and 45 points in 48 games, more problems came with the rest of the team. This doesn’t have anything to do with Horvat and his play, but the Islanders still seem to be stuck as a middle of the pack team despite their great upgrade. The team came back almost exactly the same as last season and there have been injuries and a coaching change. As this has been beneficial for the Islanders from a Horvat standpoint, let’s now look at how it went for the Canucks in comparison.
Canucks Hit on Unexpected Piece of Trade
On the other side of the trade, two of the three pieces were traded elsewhere already and Raty is the only player still left and playing in the AHL. The 21-year-old is still just in the second year of his entry-level deal and is exempt from waivers. It is perfectly fine that he is still developing in the AHL, even though he has gotten a small taste of the NHL. On the Islanders, he got into 12 games before being traded and scored two goals and no assists. After the trade, Vancouver got him into three games and he recorded an assist.
While he was able to put up a near point-per-game in Liiga in 2021-22, he hasn’t scored as many points in the AHL since coming over to North America. He finished with just two goals and 12 points in 25 games for the Abbotsford Canucks last season, but has picked it up in 2023-24, scoring eight goals and 25 points in 40 games to this point. I believe he will eventually find himself in a bottom-six role in the NHL and has shown immense talent at a younger age, it’s just a matter of transforming that at the pro level.
As I mentioned, the other two pieces, Beauvillier and the 2023 first round pick were dealt. The first rounder came first, and it was used to retool and acquire Filip Hronek from the Detroit Red Wings last season. That has worked out very well for the Canucks and has gone better than they could have hoped for. While the player drafted by the Red Wings with that pick, Axel Sandin Pellikka, looks very good, Hronek has been the perfect partner for Quinn Hughes during his Norris-caliber season. Hronek, who’s only 26 years old and a RFA after the season, has three goals and 36 points in 49 games to go along with a plus-33 rating. It’s not very often a team can find a top-four defenseman for what seems will be a long time with just a first round pick and that quickly.
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Beauvillier didn’t work out on the Canucks as they had hoped. He had last season and this season under contract, but he was the one eventually dumped to clear cap space this season instead of Conor Garland or anyone else. His nine goals and 20 points in 33 games for the Canucks last season matched his totals (nine goals and 20 points) in 49 games for the Islanders in 2022-23 before the trade. This was a good start, but this season just didn’t seem to work. With other younger forwards with a smaller cap hit playing better, Beauvillier and his $4.150 million AAV contract had to be shipped off to make room for Nikita Zadorov on defense. While the Canucks got lucky that the Chicago Blackhawks were in desperate need of a winger, it actually got them a fifth round pick in return in 2024 and the Canucks didn’t have to pay to dump him. He only scored two goals and eight points in 22 games for the Canucks this season and isn’t doing much better on the Blackhawks.
So as it stands, the Islanders have a productive first line center in Horvat while the Canucks are first in the league and have turned what they got in return to Hronek, a fifth round pick, and Raty. It has worked for both sides fairly equally. There’s not many instances you can say that.
