Despite not being chosen by the NHL to represent the Vancouver Canucks at the 2023 NHL All-Star festivities in South Florida, Bo Horvat was voted in by the fans, which was announced on Jan. 19.
When the New York Islanders acquired Bo Horvat from the Canucks back on Monday, he was asked during his media session if he was still heading to the All-Star Game?
“That’s a good question,” Horvat said. “I believe I am still going. I don’t know if it’s ever been done before or happened before, before an All-Star game, but yeah, I plan on going.”
At the time of this call, Horvat and his family were already in Florida at Disney.
There had been no news from the NHL on the plan, but on Wednesday night, we got our answer.
Greg Wyshynski of ESPN reported that Horvat will be going to the All-Star festivities and will be representing the Pacific Division.
However, he will not be wearing a Canucks jersey and will not be representing the Canucks at all.
For the skills competition, he will be donning a 2022-23 New York Islanders Reverse Retro Fisherman jersey and will wearing the Pacific Division’s throwback All-Star sweater for the game.
He will wear no. 14, not no. 53.
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daley told Daniel Wagner of Vancouver Is Awesome, that all club identifiers and intellectual property will reflect his current affiliation with the NY Islanders. So his All-Star Game sweater will have an Islanders logo on it.
All this information makes the most sense as Horvat is no longer a Canuck, but there is a part of this that is confusing.
The whole point of the All-Star festivities is for the fans, and the whole reason Horvat is headed to All-Star Weekend is because Canucks fans voted him in.
The fact that Horvat wasn’t chosen by the NHL to represent the Canucks, going with Elias Pettersson instead was a head-scratcher, but that was the reality.
Despite Canucks management failing Horvat, withe the low-ball of an offer at the beginning of the season, and what they’ve done with the team, it seems that the Canucks fan base continued to support their captain, who played his heart out and has been one of the better players in the NHL this season.
Maybe, he should be wearing both patches, again, for the fans that got him there and supported him.
With Horvat now representing the Islanders, he joins Brock Nelson and Ilya Sorokin at the event.
The 2023 NHL All-Star Skills begins at 7 PM ET on Friday, with the 2023 NHL All-Star Game starting at 3 PM ET on Saturday.
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