Despite interest in staying at Canucks, there is uncertainty over Horvat’s contract

VANCOUVER — If you had bet at the end of last season that JT Miller would have a new contract and Bo Horvat would not have one by the time the Vancouver Canucks got back together in September, you would have enough money to pay for the baggage your airline lost the summer.

But there was Horvat, the career canuck and team captain who was coming off a 31-goal season and trying to explain on Monday why he signed Miller on a seven-year, $56 million extension ten days after management had, has no contract.

Miller’s contract had felt like a long shot — not because of his game or importance, but because of age and salary cap pressures. Two years younger, at 27 and with 572 games for the Canucks, Horvat should be the safe bet.

With training camp opening next week, the safest thing about Horvat is that after this last season his status in his current contract in Vancouver will be a big topic of conversation until it’s settled.

“I want to be a Vancouver Canuck,” repeated Horvat, the good captain, on Monday after heading back to camp with his teammates for the first time. “I want to stay here and I love our group. My wife and I love the city. If I wanted to play for one team my entire career, it would be the Vancouver Canucks. Obviously it’s a long process and we’ll see where it goes.

“I can’t let things like that bother me. I can’t keep it hanging over my head all the time. For me, I need to put my head down and be the best leader I can. I’m a Vancouver Canuck now. I’ll be a Vancouver Canuck all year, and. . . I will try to do everything to help this team win. And that’s what I’m concentrating on at the moment.”

Whether his head is down or in the sky, Horvat, who is ending a six-year deal averaging $5.5 million per season, will be uncertain. This contract was signed five years ago on the opening day of the Canucks’ prospect tournament in Penticton, BC

This event, which features the Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames revived after a pandemic hiatus, begins Friday in the South Okanagan.

There was a regime change in Vancouver last season but new general manager Patrik Allvin wants to re-sign Horvat, although he expressed neither optimism nor pessimism that that would happen soon when asked about Miller’s signing last week became.

However, Allvin identified Horvat among the five “core players” he named and said the depth of the team down the middle with Miller, Horvat and Elias Pettersson was one of his greatest strengths – a backbone to build on.

Over the past five seasons, Horvat led the Canucks with 121 goals, including 49 on the power play, and averaged .73 points per game, despite receiving the heaviest defensive duties under former head coach Travis Green and his successor, Bruce Boudreau.

Horvat has also won 54.9 percent of his faceoffs and is third in the National Hockey League with 7,525 draws over the past five years. Only Ryan O’Reilly and Anze Kopitar have completed more face-offs.

Horvat should be less expensive to sign than Miller, who is 12^th in the NHL since former GM Jim Benning took over three years ago, but could command a maximum term of eight years.

Miller’s signing shouldn’t make it more difficult to sign Horvat. The Canucks have money for both players and have always wanted to re-sign both.

You also need both. As we’ve said before, Miller may be the Canucks’ emotional heart, but Horvat remains their conscience.

Inflation in Horvat’s next contract — say, a $7 million DPV instead of $5.5 million — should be easy from a franchise that wants to keep its best players and believes its window to win is just opening be tolerated.

“I think the guys that we added, (Ilya) Mikheyev and (Andrei) Kuzmenko, those guys have high-end skills and speed and I think it’s good that we added that speed up front,” said Horvat. “And of course, bringing Millsy back is huge. He’s a big part of our group, offensively and defensively. . . and a great guy to have in the room. Millsy and I have a really good relationship and are great friends off the ice so it’s huge for us to have him locked in here.”

Horvat said he is “100 per cent” recovered from the broken tibia he sustained in April and finished his season with 70 games and 52 points. He said his summer training was largely unchanged, although his life took a very different course following the arrival of baby Tulsa, a little sister to two-year-old Gunnar, in the spring.

“Busy, very busy,” Horvat smiled. “It changes things. I figured one (kid) is a lot and two is a whole different beast. Luckily she is an angel. Her brother beats her up and she just keeps smiling. He’s definitely a bit jealous right now, but they were great.”

He hopes they grow old enough to see him play for the Canucks.