Canucks say signing Horvat to new contract is 'priority'

VANCOUVER --The Vancouver Canucks hope to sign captain Bo Horvat to a new contract, but the forward's hot start to the season will at least increase his trade value if they can't reach an agreement, president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford said Monday.

Rutherford told Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver there's been no movement in negotiations with Horvat, who can become an unrestricted free agent after this season.
The 2023 NHL Trade Deadline is March 3.
"Our priority is to keep Bo," Rutherford said. "I give him a lot of credit. He could lose his focus here and be thinking about what's going to happen with his contract and whatnot, but he came in ready to play and he's played terrific for us. I hope that keeps going. I hope we can sign him. If we can't sign him, the better we play, the better return we're going to get for him, so it works out for everybody, but ideally we can figure out a way to keep Bo in Vancouver."
Horvat, a forward, has scored 12 goals in 13 games, second in the NHL behind Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid, and his 16 points are one behind forward Elias Pettersson for the Vancouver lead.
The Canucks, who are 4-6-3 after a 6-4 win at the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday to begin a five-game road trip, have missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs in six of the past seven seasons. They've blown a multigoal lead five times and were the first team in NHL history to do so in its first four games. Vancouver lost 4-3 in overtime to the Nashville Predators on Saturday after leading 3-0, which had Rutherford lamenting a lack of defensive structure.
"In order for us to become a better team, we have to play with a stronger system and really be more accountable for some of the things that some of the players are struggling with," Rutherford said. "In the NHL now, the way the game is played and the way the game is called by the referees, it's hard to defend because you can't get away with cross checks in front of the net, knocking the guys out of the way, and so it's understandable teams are going to give up leads. It happens all over the League, but the fact it has happened as many times as it has in this short period of time, it's a major concern and something has to be fixed."
Though the Canucks addressed the right side of the defense by acquiring Ethan Bear in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes on Oct. 28 for a fifth-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, they are 30th in goals-against per game (4.00).
"If we were playing in a real strong structure, it would make it easier for our defense to play and it wouldn't matter who was on our defense," Rutherford said. "But right now, we don't have that strong structure."
Coach Bruce Boudreau was asked about Rutherford's comments after the morning skate Tuesday.
"Listen guys, right off the top, I'm not going to get into an argument of whether we do or whether we don't [play with structure]," Boudreau said. "We play as hard as we can. We do as well as we can, and we lay it all out on the line, I think, every night."
Boudreau said he's unconcerned about Rutherford's criticism.
"Hearing about it this morning from a lot of people. It is what it is," Boudreau said. "I try to keep the noise out and keep the noise out of the room as much as possible, and just focus on what we have to do at hand, and that's win a hockey game.
"This is my 47th year in the business. I've seen a lot of things, so it's just another thing added to the book that I'll never write."
Boudreau is in the final season of his contract. He was supported by general manager Patrik Allvin two weeks ago despite an 0-5-2 start to the season with the Canucks enduring several injuries, including a lower-body injury to defenseman Quinn Hughes.
"Yeah, the coaching staff from Day One, we have good communication and we're working together and we're going to find a way out of this," Allvin said Oct. 26. "I'm the general manager, so I'm as responsible as the coaches and the players and we're all working together. I see the hard work the coaching staff is putting in every day and my job is to always look at options to get better and support them."
Rutherford said that he doesn't see the offensive style used in the second half of last season, when Vancouver finished 32-15-10 after Boudreau replaced Travis Green, as a sustainable way to play over a long period of time. He hinted more changes could come if things don't start to turn around.
"We're at a point now and certainly we will be at this point even more, so at the end of this road trip where we have to make players more accountable," Rutherford said. "We'll have to take the necessary steps to get players attention."
Horvat said before the game Tuesday that "it's good to be challenged." But he said that the Canucks are not going to dwell on what Rutherford said.
"I actually didn't hear everything that was said, but we're focused on what's going on here," Horvat said. "We have a lot of belief in this group, we have a lot of belief in ourselves. I think we've played a lot of good hockey, enough to know that we've got a really good hockey team here. Obviously, we've got to clean up parts of our game, but for the most part, it's about dialling it in and playing a full 60 minutes and not giving up leads."
NHL.com independent correspondent Callum Fraser contributed to this report