Photo Credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin – USA TODAY Sports

Bowie William Horvat will represent the Canucks at the 2017 NHL All-Star in Los Angeles. 

This is a fantastic development for the Canucks, as one of their building blocks continues his upward trajectory towards being a leader on the team. 

Horvat, who’s in the final year of his entry-level, could be in line for a bonus as a result of his place on the Pacific Division’s team.

As always, this is an opportunity to explain what this means for the Canucks going forward.

With this bonus development, as with most, the only way to look at it is as a significant positive. These contractual clauses are usually associated with strong performance.

For the purpose of this exercise, it’s another chance to delve into the minutiae of the NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement and unpack the financial repercussions.

Let’s start by defining what the NHL All-Star game is, if for no other reason than it’s spelled out in the CBA in Article 1:

With that, we can confirm that the NHL has named Horvat a participant in this year’s iteration of the All-Star Game. Glad that’s cleared up.

Let’s dive into how this distinction affects Horvat’s income and the Canucks’ pocketbooks specifically. This News 1130 is a good start.

Next is finding out why exactly the Canucks owe him his just deserts.

Jeremy Davis did a fantastic job in April, explaining the entry-level contract bonuses when the Canucks signed Thatcher Demko. But they are slightly different for forwards, but still listed under ‘Exhibit 5’.

Horvat’s All-Star selection falls under ‘A’ bonuses, which the CBA outlines accordingly:

These amount of the bonuses are negotiated in the entry-level contract and can vary from contract to contract. It’s just that each category cannot exceed $212,500. Those categories are listed shortly after explaining what the minimums are:

As we can see under (viii) – one of the options is being named to the NHL All-Star Game. Cap Friendly confirms Bo Horvat would be receiving this bonus:

Last point about Exhibit 5, the maximum payable is $850,000 for each year. Which is equal to four categories of $212,500 each.

This is the second year Horvat’s earned an ‘A’ bonus within his ELC. Last season, he received the ‘Ice-time’ bonus last year, which I reviewed in June. In hindsight, it’s clear that the $315,000 that was carried over from last season, $212,500 of that was Horvat’s, as it was an ‘A’ ice-time bonus that he reached.

Bo Horvat is currently 5th in average ice time amongst forwards with 17:25 per game, thus he is currently on track to receive that ice-time bonus again.

At this moment, the Canucks have $984,572 in cap space. 

But we are halfway through the season. Things could change, and that remaining space may get eaten up. If that is the case the All-Star bonus that Horvat earned, will be carried over to next season.

This bonus is nothing but a blip on the radar for the Canucks. What’s more important is that Horvat is being recognized for a fantastic season and gives fans something to rally behind.

Congratulations to Horvat on the selection and the bonus. Don’t spend it all in L.A.!

Roster Sizes, Contract Limits, and Multiple Waiver Claims (From Jeremy Davis)

On the Conclusion of the CBA 

Waiver Priority Order 

On Emerson Etem, and Reclaiming the Claimed (From Jeremy Davis)

Contract information from Capfriendly.

NHL/NHLPA CBA can be found here.