- Bo Horvat is the 16th captain in New York Islanders history
- He replaces Anders Lee, who left for Utah on July 1
- Read below for Horvat’s own take on wearing the C
The Islanders have a captain again.
New York named Bo Horvat the 16th captain in franchise history on Monday morning. He takes over for Anders Lee, who wore the C for eight seasons before signing a three-year, $16.2 million contract with the Utah Mammoth on July 1.
This is the second C of Horvat’s career. Vancouver took him ninth overall in 2013 and handed him the captaincy ahead of the 2019-20 season, and he kept it until the Canucks traded him to Long Island on Jan. 30, 2023. He has worn an A for the Islanders each of the last two years.
Horvat was asked by NHL.com back in July what the job actually demands of a player.
“The way I looked at it was I rather face the music and have to answer the hard questions and worry about the team, than having some guys in the locker room do that or the guys in the locker room take the heat. It’s that extra pressure, it’s that extra weight on your shoulders, but at the same time it lets other people be who they want to be and the players they want to be.”
Matthew Schaefer was the other name people kept circling back to, and the 19-year-old defenseman said in July that he was in no rush to get the letter. Brayden Schenn, a former captain in St. Louis, was on the board too. Horvat had the term nobody else did, with five years still left on the eight-year, $68 million deal he signed six days after the trade.
The production is there as well. Horvat leads all Islanders in goals since the trade with 99, and his 198 points in 260 games pace the team over that stretch. He put up 31 goals and 57 points in 68 games last season.
Take a look at the announcement graphic the club posted Monday:
Going without a captain would have been new territory for this franchise. The Islanders have not opened a season without one since 1996-97, the year after Patrick Flatley left.
Nine teams are still sorting that out, including Anaheim, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Detroit, Los Angeles, Ottawa, San Jose and Vancouver. New York is not one of them anymore.
Training camp opens this week, and Horvat wears the C for the first time on Sept. 30 in Toronto.
