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Good Morning, Islanders Country.
GM Lou Lamoriello didn’t make us sweat it out. After speaking about how the Bo Horvat trade was a deal “for today and tomorrow,” he extended the All-Star center on Sunday to an eight-year contract at $8.5M AAV per season. The $68M contract includes a full no-trade clause from the Islanders through 2026-27 and converts to a 16-team ‘no-trade’ for the last four years.
The cost of doing business was steep. Lamoriello even quipped the deal was “too long and for too much money” when he met with reporters after practice.
“My wife and I talked about this place a lot. Honestly, it was probably in my top five right from the beginning. I don’t know the area too, too well, but I can’t wait to get to know it for eight years.” - Bo Horvat
The Islanders had little choice but to pay market value and then some to retain Horvat after trading Anthony Beauvillier, their top prospect in Aatu Raty, and a protected 2023 first-round pick to Vancouver last Monday.
And while some still feel this is the right player but at the wrong time, they’ll be hard-pressed to think of a better move that could’ve been made once the decision was made to “go for it” this year and beyond and not entertain a rebuild or even retool of any sort. Instead, the Islanders decided to reload and expand their core group for this and future “windows” to compete for a Stanley Cup.
The Islanders were not willing to take two steps backward. Not with Mathew Barzal extended, Ilya Sorokin in his prime, and a two-year-old new UBS arena to fill. For those of you that thought the Islanders were better off long-term tearing things down at this juncture, you probably didn’t anticipate the team’s ability to both trade for and extend a player of Horvat’s caliber in-season.
That changed everything and changes everything.
