Canucks News & Rumours: Boeser, Horvat & a New Chapter in Vancouver

There’s something kind of interesting about Brock Boeser talking about Bo Horvat right now. On the surface, the two things don’t have much to do with each other. Boeser is talking about the Vancouver Canucks’ new season and a team trying to put a miserable 2025-26 behind it. Horvat is now the captain of the New York Islanders, three-and-a-half years removed from Vancouver. But put the two stories together and they say something about where the Canucks are today.

Vancouver is trying to turn the page. Boeser is still here, one of the veterans who has to help lead that process. Horvat is somewhere else, continuing to score goals and now wearing another captain’s C. One story is about what comes next for the Canucks. The other is a reminder of something the organization left behind.

Brock Boeser Is Ready for a New Chapter

Boeser didn’t have a whole lot to smile about during last season’s mess. The Canucks struggled badly, the roster was changing around him, and there wasn’t much reason to pretend things were better than they were. Now, though, Boeser sounds like a player who understands that last season is over and there’s not much point dragging it into the next one. [from “Canucks Notebook: Plaudits for new Isles captain Bo Horvat, new challenge for Brock Boeser, The Province, Ben Kuzma, Sep 14, 2026].

His description of the coming season was pretty simple: “It’s a new chapter for our team.” And then came the part that probably tells us more about Boeser’s approach than anything else. If the players come to the rink every day wanting to get better, he believes they can have a much better year.

That sounds almost too simple. But maybe simple is exactly what Vancouver needs right now. The Canucks aren’t going to fix everything overnight. There are young players who need bigger roles, veterans who need to provide some stability and a new group that has to figure out what kind of team it wants to become. Boeser has been around long enough to know that culture doesn’t magically appear. Somebody has to set the example.

At 29, Boeser is now one of those players. That’s a different role from the one he had when he arrived in Vancouver and scored 29 goals in his first full NHL season. He’s seen the franchise go through some very good stretches and some very difficult ones. If this really is a new chapter, Boeser has a pretty important part in helping write it.

Bo Horvat Is Still Part of the Canucks Story

Then there’s Horvat. Boeser was asked about his former teammate becoming captain of the Islanders and immediately offered a pretty simple response: “No surprise.” He called Horvat a great guy, a hard worker and a pro who comes to the rink wanting to get better every day.

That sounds like a nice compliment from an old teammate, and it is. But it also opens the door to one of those questions that never completely disappears in hockey. What might the Canucks look like today if they had kept Horvat?

Vancouver traded him to the Islanders on Jan. 31, 2023, getting Anthony Beauvillier, prospect centre Aatu Räty and a protected first-round pick in return. Horvat had 31 goals in 49 games at the time, and after arriving in New York he signed an eight-year, $68-million contract. Now 31, he’s coming off three straight seasons of 28 or more goals, and his $8.5-million annual salary looks increasingly reasonable as the NHL’s salary cap continues to rise.

There’s no point pretending the Canucks could have simply kept everybody. Horvat was approaching unrestricted free agency, and Vancouver had to make a decision. But that doesn’t mean the decision can’t be revisited. That’s one of the fun things about hockey. You make the trade, everybody moves on, and then a few years later you look around and ask what became of everybody involved.

Horvat is now the Islanders’ captain. Boeser is still in Vancouver. And the Canucks are trying to build something new.

What’s Next for the Canucks?

That’s what makes these two stories work together. Boeser is talking about moving forward while Horvat is a reminder of where Vancouver has been. Neither story tells us exactly what the Canucks will become, but both say something about the importance of leadership during a rebuild.

For Boeser, the job now is to show up every day, work and help the younger players understand what being a professional NHL player looks like. For Horvat, the Vancouver chapter is long finished, but his continued success makes that old trade an interesting one to look back on.

The Canucks don’t need to recreate the past. They need to learn from it. And if Boeser is right about this being a new chapter, the first few pages will probably be written in a pretty simple way: show up, get better and see where it takes you.