He signed a one year, $925K contract during the summer and he had already put up 11 goals and 21 points in only 22 games. The line he completes with other free agent signing Ilya Mikheyev and Canucks superstar to be Elias Pettersson, has been recognized as one of the top lines in the league after their debut.
Moving from there, the question is: how are the Canucks going to handle the situation? The Russian will hit free agency again on July 1st, Horvat will also command a big raise and it's been announced that the salarial cap may increase.
Do you try and commit on him now? After only a short 22 games sample? Do you wait until you get the confirmation of the cap raise? Do you wait until you trade an other important salary (ie: Boeser, Garland, Ekman-Larsson, Myers, Poolman, Pearson)?
The risk with waiting, is that the value has a good chance to go up if he keeps playing like he's been. If the cap raise is confirmed, the Kuzmenko's clan will try and take a higher percentage of the cap space, which will also cost more. Or to play it safe, commit him now to a good amount money, even though it may take some of Horvat's money?
