There are a lot of options for the Vancouver Canucks when it comes to trading Bo Horvat.

We’ve heard the direction of management is to target younger NHL-ready players. This fits their retool mentality when it comes to what pieces the Canucks will target in a trade for Horvat. We believe there are better options for the Canucks to target and that the maximum amount of value in a return for Horvat comes from taking on players who are not yet in the NHL and having more of a rebuilding approach.

That being said, no matter if the Canucks go with some 18-22-year-olds or some 23-26-year-olds, they are going to get a good trade package in a deal for Horvat.

We’ve heard that there are seven or so teams rumoured to be interested in trading for Horvat.

Those teams are The Boston Bruins, Colorado Avalanche, Carolina Hurricanes, Seattle Kraken, Detroit Red Wings, Minnesota Wild, and New York Rangers.

There are probably some other teams sniffing around, as well. For example, Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman talked about the Tampa Bay Lightning being a wild card team but we are going to focus on the teams we have heard mentioned the most.

In this article, we will give you every major piece in a return for Bo Horvat — evaluating those pieces as a ‘retool’ or ‘rebuild’ piece.

Retool pieces will be a player in the age range of 23-26 and rebuilding will be either a draft pick or a player in the age range of 18-22.

Let’s get to work!

The Bruins have one of the weakest prospect pools in the league and will likely have to rely on Fabian Lysell or draft picks to make a Horvat deal make sense.

Retool pieces: Brandon Carlo (26yo-RD) or Marc McLaughlin (23yo-C).

Rebuild pieces: Fabian Lysell (20yo-RW), Matthew Poitras (18yo-C), Mason Lohrei (22yo-LD), John Beecher (C), Brett Harrison (19yo-C), Ryan Mast (20yo-RD), 2023 1st round pick or 2024 1st round pick.

The Avalanche’s prospect pool is basically non-existent and makes the Canucks’ cupboards look like your parents’ place after a Costco trip.

The Avs will need to lean heavily on draft picks or Alex Newhook to get a Horvat deal done.

Retool pieces: Ben Meyers (24yo-LW).

Rebuild pieces: Alex Newhook (21yo-C), Bowen Byram (21yo-LD), Sean Behrens (19yo-LD), Jean-Luc Foudy (20yo-C), Sampo Ranta (22yo-C), Oskar Olausson (20yo-W), 2023 1st round pick or 2024 1st round pick.

The Hurricanes have a young roster player or two, a prospect pool that has a handful of interesting names, and an extra second-round pick in 2024.

It’s likely tough to find value in a roster player if you don’t include Martin Necas in this deal. There are some interesting young names like Seth Jarvis and Scotty Morrow to keep an eye on, but the Canes likely have a lot of value attached to both young players — heck, Jarvis is playing on their top line right now. Morrow, on the other hand, you may be able to shake free from the Canes.

The young roster player likely to be in this deal is Jesperi Kotkaniemi (who fits into our rebuild age group) but there are a lot of questions on if he can reach his ceiling, let alone what his ceiling is.

The Canes have a ton of B-level prospects that the Canucks’ scouting staff is hopefully working on scouting as I type this. If they can find maximum value — it could come from some form of prospects and picks from the Canes.

Retool pieces: Dylan Coghlan (24yo-RD), Martin Necas (24yo-RW).

Rebuild pieces: Seth Jarvis (20yo-RW), Jesperi Kotkaniemi (22yo-C), Scotty Morton (20yo-RD), Gleb Trikozov (18yo-LW), Cruz Lucius (18yo-RW), Ville Koivunen (19yo-LW), Massimo Rizzo (21yo-C), Dominik Bokk (22yo-W), Aleksi Heimosalmi (19yo-RD), Vladimir Grudinin (19yo-LD), Jack Drury (22yo-C), Noel Gunler (21yo-RW), Ryan Suzuki (21yo-C), Patrik Puistola (22yo-W), 2023 1st round pick, 2023 2nd round pick, 2024 1st round pick, or 2024 2nd round pick (CAR,PHI).

The Kraken’s strength in trade is their abundance of top-60 picks. They have three second-round picks in this year’s draft as well as extra picks in next year’s draft and possess their own first-round picks. Shane Wright would be a big add but it would be hard to believe that the Kraken would be willing to part with Wright unless there’s an extension in place for Horvat with the team just a couple of hours down the I-5.

There are a handful of B-level prospects of note, as well as Jagger Firkus, a scoring winger.

Retool pieces: Morgan Geekie (24yo-C), Cale Fleury (24yo-RD) or Ville Petman (23yo-LW).

Rebuild pieces: Shane Wright (19yo-C), Jagger Firkus (18yo-RW), Ryker Evans (21yo-LD), Ville Ottavainen (20yo-RD), David Goyette (18yo-C), Niklas Kokko (18yo-G), Jacob Melanson (19yo-RW), Ty Nelson (18yo-RD), Jani Nyman (18yo-RW), Tucker Robertson (19yo-C), Peetro Seppälä (22yo-LD), 2023 1st round pick, 2023 2nd round pick (SEA,TOR,WIN), 2024 1st round pick, 2024 2nd round pick.

This deal doesn’t happen without an extension in place. The Red Wings do have a lot in their prospect pool to make a deal happen, though.

And a lot of them are Swedes…

Retool pieces: Michael Rasmussen (23yo-LW), Filip Hronek (25yo-RD), Pius Suter (26yo-C), Joe Veleno (23yo-C) or Filip Zadina (23yo-W).

Rebuild pieces: Lucas Raymond (20yo-W), Simon Edvinsson (19yo-LD), Marco Kasper (18yo-C/W), Sebastian Cossa (20yo-G), Albert Johansson (22yo-LD), Jonatan Berggren (22yo-W), Elmer Söderblom (21yo-LW), William Wallinder (20yo-LD), Eemil Viro (20yo-LD), 2023 1st round pick, 2023 2nd round pick (DET,STL), 2024 1st round pick, or 2024 2nd round pick.

You could go the route of a roster player or dig into the Wild’s top-end prospect pool. There are some big hitters in the Wild organization and they have all their major draft picks.

Retool pieces: Jordan Greenway (25yo-RW), Sam Steel (24yo-C), Connor Dewar (23yo-LW), Samuel Walker (23yo-C), or Mason Shaw (24yo-LW).

Rebuild pieces: Calen Addison (22yo-RD), Brock Faber (20yo-RD), Liam Öhgren (18yo-C), Marco Rossia (21yo-C), Carson Lambos (20yo-LD), Jesper Wallstedt (20yo-G), Adam Beckman (21yo-LW), Ryan O’Rourke (20yo-LD), Marshall Warren (21yo-LD), David Spacek (19yo-RD), Jack Peart (19yo-LD), Danila Yurov (19yo-RW), Marat Khusnutdinov (20yo-LW), 2023 1st round pick, 2023 2nd round pick, 2024 1st round pick, or 2024 2nd round pick.

It feels like we just went down this road… The Rangers have some very talented players under the age of 22 that could help the Canucks down the road while the Rangers would get a big boost from adding a top-notch scoring centre like Horvat.

Retool pieces: Filip Chytil (23yo-C), Julien Gauthier (25yo-RW), Jake Leschyshyn (23yo-C), Vitali Kravtsov (23yo-C), Ryan Lindgren (24yo-LD), or Libor Hájek (24yo-LD).

Rebuild pieces: Alexis Lafrenière (21yo-W), Kaapo Kakko (21yo-RW), Braden Schneider (21yo-RD), Will Cuylle (20yo-LW), Brennan Othmann (20yo-LW), Zac Jones (22yo-LD), Ryder Korczak (20yo-C), Ty Emberson (21yo-RD), Brett Berard (20yo-LW), 2023 1st round pick (NYR-DAL*), 2023 2nd round pick, 2024 1st round pick, or 2024 2nd round pick.

There is certainly a lot of options for the Canucks to boost their retool or rebuild.

Hopefully, this article helps you understand how much wiggle room each rumoured team has to offer for Horvat.