Why Josh Leivo Might Be A Long-Term Solution On Bo Horvat’s Wing

If one were pressed to identify the chief controversy in what has been a largely positive season for the Vancouver Canucks, one would likely point at the plight of captain Bo Horvat and his ongoing search for consistent wingers. Horvat’s ever-rotating linemates have had a clear detrimental effect on the 24-year-old center’s performance – especially on the defensive side of the puck – and it’s been preventing the Canucks from getting the most out of what should be a top-flight top-six.

As of this week, however, coach Travis Green may have found a long-term solution to at least one of the second-line wing vacancies, and it’s one that the Canucks have already had around for a while – Josh Leivo.

Below, we’ll do our best to make a compelling argument for why Leivo might be in for more than just a cameo on the second line, and why Horvat – and the rest of the team, too – could benefit greatly from Leivo becoming a permanent fixture on his flank.

 

It’s been a contradictorily well-known secret for a while that Josh Leivo has excellent underlying numbers. Jackson McDonald pointed out as much in a recent column, but it bears repeating that Leivo has been an advanced stats darling ever since he joined the Vancouver Canucks.

While Leivo has had immediate success following his placement on Bo Horvat’s wing, he’s already been one of the Canucks’ most efficient forwards all season – as evidenced by his points-per-60 rate.

Once one removes the small sample sizes of Antoine Roussel, Micheal Ferland, and Brandon Sutter, Leivo is left in the upper-tier of Vancouver’s even-strength points-per-60 stat column alongside Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, JT Miller, and – somewhat surprisingly – Jake Virtanen.

As such, it shouldn’t really come as much of a shock that Leivo has responded to heavier minutes with greater production, as he’s been making the most of limited minutes for some time now.

 

There aren’t many left who won’t concede that JT Miller has elevated the games of both Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser since the trio united as the Lotto Line – and there’s a lot more to it than Miller’s raw hockey talents. GM Jim Benning deserves a lot of credit for identifying a player whose style would so perfectly complement that of the Canucks’ dynamic duo – and Miller’s elite ability to dig up pucks, distribute them to his teammates, and go to the net were obviously scouted by the Vancouver front office and then pursued.

While Miller has definitely played his best as a part of the top line, he’s also elevated the play of his other various teammates throughout the season – because, really, who couldn’t benefit from the addition of a linemate with such a selfless set of skills. Bo Horvat was one of those who seemed to play his best hockey when alongside Miller earlier in the year, and that bodes well because Horvat may have discovered a mini-Miller of his own in Josh Leivo.

While the two are hardly identical players, Leivo does bring some similar things to the table – including a passion for possession and puck pursuit that ensures that his linemates spend more time each game with the puck on their sticks – and in the preferred end of the ice.

 

As has been the case since his trade from the “toxic environment” of Toronto, Leivo remains one of the Canucks best possession players in 2019/20.

Leivo’s Corsi For % is right up there with that of Quinn Hughes and the Lotto Line, and that alone speaks volumes about the impact he has on his teammates. Simply put, the Canucks direct a lot more pucks on the net when Leivo is on the ice than any of the other bottom-nine forwards – and that includes his prospective linemate, Bo Horvat.

More in-depth stats, like Leivo’s individual expected-goals-for rate, also reflect a player who improves his team’s ability to control the puck and bring it into the areas where goals have a tendency to occur.

The eye-test will also back up this statistical assertion. When Leivo has the puck, he’s fantastic at either hanging onto it or dishing it to a teammate – and when he doesn’t have the puck, he’s dogged at pursuing it. Never was this more apparent than in Tuesday’s matchup with the Maple Leafs, in which it seemed like a Toronto player couldn’t take three strides with the puck before Leivo started hounding them for it.

We’ve come this far without mentioning the elephant in the room, but it’s time to say it – Bo Horvat already has a pretty solid winger in Tanner Pearson. But while Pearson is quickly becoming a consistent linemate of Horvat’s, he’s still not a consistent linemate of Horvat’s – if you catch our meaning. The notoriously streaky Pearson cannot be counted on to produce points on a regular basis – preferring to score in bunches – and his effort level occasionally appears to be similarly inconsistent. When Pearson isn’t at his best, he’s only added to Horvat’s struggles.

The same cannot be said of Josh Leivo. He’s a player that is almost always giving his all on the ice, and his rate of production is surprisingly consistent – for a player who has often skated in the bottom-six, that is – as a result.

Despite playing all over the roster, Leivo has produced points in a relatively uniform fashion since joining the Canucks. It is only when he’s elevated in the lineup – on the top line last season and Horvat’s wing in 2019/20 – that Leivo’s scoring rate dramatically increases.

And that’s exactly what you want from someone you’re considering putting into a permanent top-six role.

Speaking of Tanner Pearson and his infamous inconsistency, it should be mentioned here that Josh Leivo can play either wing. He’s typically been a left winger, but he is right-handed – which is why he’s slid so easily onto Bo Horvat’s right flank.

The next time Pearson goes through a slump, coach Travis Green will have a lot of leeway in mixing up his second line. He can bump another leftie into Pearson’s spot, or he can move Leivo over there and slot someone else into the right wing position. Offensive duos are in vogue these days – look no further than the bromance of Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser – and a dedicated dyad of Horvat and Leivo could cycle through any number of third wheels over the course of a season. Flexibility is always a good thing when it comes to line-building, and Leivo’s quasi-ambidextrousness provides exactly that.

 

Since we’re diving deep into Josh Leivo’s handedness, we should also mention another very vital statistic – his age. Leivo will be 26 years old for the entirety of the 2019/20 season, which means he’s in the midst of his scoring prime and should remain there for at least a couple more campaigns beyond this one.

Bo Horvat himself is just entering his prime at 24, and that means that, if he and Leivo do develop true chemistry, they just might be able to keep it rolling for years to come.

All of this makes a compelling case that Josh Leivo is a perfect linemate for Bo Horvat on paper – but that only goes so far in the world of professional ice hockey. Fortunately, there’s plenty of intangible reasons to believe they’ll prove a winning combination in the long run, including the fact that their offensive styles mesh beautifully.

Horvat is a multifaceted scoring threat, but he’s at his best when he’s either grinding it out down low or driving hard to the net – two habits that Leivo can definitely facilitate. We’ve already covered how Leivo’s possession game will mean more time for Horvat to work his magic behind the net and in the corners, but he’s also proven quite capable of putting pucks on his teammates sticks in and around the crease.

Statistically, Leivo is one of the best Vancouver forwards at firing the kinds of shots that generate frequent rebounds – and that’s a wonderful thing when you’ve got captain Bo Horvat steaming through the slot to bang in any loose puck he can get his stick on.

Of course, the notion of Josh Leivo and Bo Horvat having success together isn’t entirely hypothetical. Horvat’s chemistry with Tanner Pearson at the tail-end of 2018/19 drew a ton of attention, but aside from that Horvat played some of his best hockey while lining up with Leivo.

Then there’s the present tense. Since joining Horvat’s line during the December 1 match against Edmonton, Leivo has four goals in four games.

It doesn’t take a genius to sit here and state that something might work well when it’s currently working well. But we think we’ve made a compelling case that the Leivo/Horvat connection might continue to work wonders – and that Horvat’s search for a consistent winger might be at its merciful end.