What Would You Do Wednesday: Bo Horvat
By Rhys Jessop
9 years agoWelcome to a new feature here on Canucks Army and all sites on the Nation Network: What Would You Do Wednesday, where we put you, yes YOU, in charge of your own imaginary Vancouver Canucks. We’ll present you with a different scenario each week, and you tell us how you’d solve it in the comments section below. Give props to the answers you do like and trash the ones you don’t. Easy! We’re back this week after a short hiatus, so let’s get started:
Last WWYDW, we asked how you would handle the Eddie Lack situation. And of course, you responded with a ton of different solutions. And arguments. Oh there were arguments.
Anyways, reader SJ had the best answer, as selected by the people:
Let Lack play. Stop burying him in the 2nd half of back-to-backs behind a tired team. Let him play some non back-to-back situations, and when it is btb, maybe give him the first game instead. Let Miller try to stand on his head and steal the 2nd game.
He’s a good young goalie and the stats will come around. Also, he seems to be a great teammate off the ice, which is a pretty good quality in a backup, considering he spends more time off the ice than anyone else.
If you’re still interested in the topic, seeing as Ryan Miller’s 0.902 save percentage on the year is getting worrying, you can go back and read the comments in all their glory here.
This week, we ask what would you do with Bo Horvat. Horvat, 19, is Vancouver’s top pospect and has played in five of his nine allotted nine games before Vancouver has to make a decision on whether to keep him with the big club for the balance of the year and burn a year of his entry level deal, or send him back to the London Knights.
Horvat hasn’t seen much ice time under Willie Desjardins, as the Canucks bench boss has only played him an average of roughly 9:20 per night in a fourth line role. Still, Horvat has been Vancouver’s best faceoff man in his short time in the NHL, winning 54% of his draws albeit in a small sample, and has seen a very defensive deployment with a sub-30% offensive zone start rate.
On the other hand, Horvat has been held without a point in his first 10 games in professional hockey, including his AHL stint, and hasn’t really been a threat to score outside of one shift against the San Jose Sharks. He’s also carrying a 38% Corsi which is quite bad, even considering his deployment and teammates.
Horvat is scheduled to take Linden Vey’s place in the lineup tonight against the Oilers and play his 6th NHL game, so the decision on whether to keep him in Vancouver or send him back to the London Knights has to be made soon. If the Canucks keep him, he’ll get to learn from NHLers about the NHL game, and have access to all the Canucks training staff and facilities, but he’ll see very limited game action and may not be that effective in the little ice time he gets.
On the other hand, returning Horvat to London will allow him to keep developing his offensive touch – which is our primary concern about his NHL future – and save a year on his entry level deal that would be wasted by part-time duty. But Horvat may not even be the top line centre on his OHL team once more, as Max Domi has been moved to centre, and certain pundits say that Horvat “has nothing left to prove” in the CHL.
So what would you do? Would you send Horvat back? Would you keep him around? Would you give him an increased role on the Canucks? Would you keep him just to learn from the pros? Why? Let us know in the comments section below!
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