NHL Rumors: Bo Horvat rejects Canucks latest offer, and salary cap update
Anthony Scultore
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Today’s NHL Rumors looks at Vancouver Canucks captain Bo Horvat and the latest on the salary cap from the Board of Governors meetings in Florida.
Let’s jump in.
NHL Rumors: Bo Horvat rejects latest offer
Update: Bo Horvat releases a statement that reads:
“I am focused on this season and playing for the Vancouver Canucks, helping the team in any way I can. I will not have any further comments this year about my future.”
Bo Horvat is likely on the way out of Vancouver based on the latest reports.
According to Rick Dhaliwal, the pending UFA rejected the Canucks most recent offer which makes him a top candidate for a trade at the deadline come March 3.
The 27 year-old is having an excellent season with 20 goals and 29 points in 28 games. Per Dhaliwal, he believes the latest offer is below the $8 million plus that Horvat is seeking.
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.
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That likely means Brock Boeser will be pulled off the market as the 25 year-old forward still has two years remaining on his deal at $6.65 million. It was believed that the Canucks would try and trade him in order to create much needed cap space to extend Horvat.
“Our priority is to keep Bo (Horvat),” Canucks president Jim Rutherford said back in November. “We recognize what he can do for us. I hope we can sign him but if he keeps playing like this we’re going to get a better return for him.”
NHL Rumors: Salary Cap update
The salary cap was slated to go up a million dollars to $83.5 million for the 2023-24 campaign. There was some hope that it could go higher but according to commissioner Gary Bettman’s most recent update at the Board of Governors meeting it’s up in the air.
“We’ll see,” he said.
Here’ s a look at how the salary cap is currently expected to rise:
- $83.5 million in 2023-24
- $87.5 million to $88 million in 2024-25
- $92 million in 2025-26 (estimated)
