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The New York Islanders announced today that they’ve signed Bo Horvat to an eight-year contract extension. The deal carries a $8.5 million cap hit.

#Isles News: The New York Islanders have agreed to terms with forward Bo Horvat on an eight-year contract.

— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) February 5, 2023

The Islanders acquired Horvat from the Vancouver Canucks about a week ago, in exchange for Anthony Beauvillier, Aatu Raty and a top-12 protected first-round pick in this year’s NHL Draft. Horvat is 27 years old and is in the middle of a huge year, with 31 goals and 54 points in 49 games. Horvat was set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, and the deal will kick in for the 2023-24 season.

Obviously, it’s a lot to pay for Horvat. The eight-year term was always expected if the Islanders reached an extension with him, but $8.5 million is quite high.

His dramatically increased rate of production this year really drove up his price tag, and I don’t think anyone was looking at Horvat as a $8.5 million player coming into the year. We can also reasonably assume he won’t be able to sustain that production going forward.

At the same time, given what the Islanders gave up in the trade, we knew the goal was to re-sign him. They overpaid to do it, but are adding a key piece to a top-six that desperately needed some scoring help.

I’ll aim to have an article analyzing the contract out in the coming days.





OTHER ARTICLES FROM FEBRUARY

Analyzing the Bo Horvat trade

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