Joined: Dec. 2017
Posts: 3,179
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I think you make some fair points. Plus, what if Horvat doesn't see his spot in the organization going forward with Miller and Pettersson as centers? He's probably not interested in playing 3C minutes IF that is actually the plan.
I don't think Horvat will play 3C minutes this year though. I think all of Vancouver's best players are going to play a lot of minutes overall by getting double shifted or loading up the lines during a game regularly. That means Miller, Pettersson, Horvat Boeser and whoever is playing the best on a given night out of Garland, Podkolzin, Mikheyev, etc. will always play the most minutes by far. Moving Ekman-Larsson with Hughes makes the most sense as one of those two will play semi-regular minutes apart as well, like Colorado did in the Playoffs with Toews and Makar. Bottom line is Horvat will still be the leader in Vancouver and they will pay him as such.