The Trade is Beau-for-Bo: Islanders acquire Horvat from Vancouver for Beauvillier, Raty and protected first rounder

[UPDATED] In a shocking, surprising evening move, the Islanders have acquired Canucks captain Bo Horvat in exchange for Anthony Beauvillier, Aatu Raty and a protected first round pick in this upcoming draft.

No, this is not a Zeitgeist parody post. It’s true. With a team press release and everything.

Horvat, a center, is 27 and is a pending unrestricted free agent. He has 31 goals and 23 assists in 49 games this season and is slated to play in next week’s All Star Game for Vancouver. Yeah, that’s a monkey in the wrench.

Since being taken in the first round of the 2013 draft, Horvat has 201 goals and 219 assists for 420 points. He was named Vancouver’s captain in 2018 and endured some tumultuous seasons, especially this one. Outside of a short run in the 2020 bubble, the Canucks were pretty lousy and unstable while Horvat was there, but he was consistent scoring presence with seasons of 22 and 27 goals. His 31 goals last season were a career high. Now he has that with 30 games left in the season for his new team.

Beauvillier was drafted in the first round of the 2015 draft alongside his good friend, Mathew Barzal. He scored 102 goals and 107 assists in 457 games with the Islanders and never quite reached the heights of his 21-goal rookie second season. Although prone to streakiness, the speedy winger scored the biggest goal in decades for the Islanders in overtime of Game Six of the 2021 Eastern Conference final against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Raty, a center, was drafted in the second round of the 2021 draft was considered something of a steal. He was a highly touted prospect before an injury and slump derailed his draft year. He got some games in for the Islanders this season , scoring two goals, and looked like a player with a high hockey IQ who needed some extra seasoning. He’ll get that in Vancouver now.

Pierre LeBrun has the details on the pick going to the Canucks:

If things really go off the rails and the Islanders finish with a Top-10 pick, they will keep it and the Canucks will receive New York’s 2024 first rounder. If the Islanders finish anywhere else - including a slightly off the rails 13-15 - Vancouver gets this year’s pick. You can call this “Connor Bedard Insurance.”

For a team lacking in scoring punch, getting a guy on a near 50-goal pace, on paper, sounds great. But was the price too high? And if there’s no extension, what if he walks at the end of the season? These are among the many questions we’re wrestling with.

The team held two press availabilities shortly after the trade. Here’s Lou Lamoriello’s:

Lamoriello, as always, doesn’t give away much. He felt making the trade earlier was better. He likes that Horvat kills penalties. The Canucks are also withholding 25% of Horvat’s $5.5 million salary for this season. Lamoriello wants to get Horvat signed to an extension “as soon as possible” and he feels this is a trade for more than just this season. He says you never make a move like this without having a plan in place, which sure sounds like they have an offer on the table.

And here’s newest Islander Bo Horvat, speaking from his family vacation in DisneyLand. I hope they didn’t have to pull him off of Pirates of the Caribbean for this.

Horvat is looking forward to getting together with the boys and the week off should help. He compliments Mat Barzal’s game and hopes he can mesh with him. Worth a watch to get an idea of what his thoughts are right now. He gets pretty emotional when asked by Chris King about playing against the Canucks in what will be his third game as an Islander on February 9.

A couple of small nuggets for now:

This is obviously a lot to chew on and there’s no wrong or right way to look at it. We recorded a special episode of Islanders Anxiety this evening that’s available now.