Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek on the 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – Previewing the Western Conference on the Vancouver Canucks.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Friedman: “I think Horvat’s going to have a monster year because the contract depends on it.
So, I think the have elite-level talent. The move with Dickinson. I still think they’re gonna look at adding another defenseman. I know Pettersson’s name is all over the place, but nothing is done until it’s done. And we’ll see, there’s been a lot of rumors that haven’t come to fruition.
I think this is going to be a fascinating team. And I’ll say this, we talked about it briefly in the Eastern Conference pod the other day, I think Larkin and Horvat are kind of eyeing each other and saying, ‘okay, we know what Barzal got.”
Marek: “I was gonna say, they’re both looking at Mat Barzal and saying, ‘thank you.’
Friedman: “I have to say this. So I went on Don Taylor and Rick Dhaliwal’s show, I go on every two weeks, and I want to say thanks to them because they donate my earnings to the Canucks Autism Network, which I’m proud to donate too, and I said that one of the comparables there I think is Couturier. That it is Couturier, $7.5 . And people were like, Bo Horvat should be in the 6’s.
Marek: “No.”
Friedman: “And I said, ‘are you guys nuts?’ Do you think, look at where contracts are going here for centers. Do you really think you’re going to get Horvat in the six millions? Come on.
It’s starting with seven at least, and we’ll see where it goes. Now, I don’t know if it’s going to get to eight . I don’t know that.
But, here’s the thing, I think he wants to stay there. I think they want him to stay. Vancouver showed this year, they said ‘no’ Miller, they gave him eight. We’ll see where this goes.”
Marek: “He’s flat-out one of my favorite players. Period. I’ve been a fan forever. I cheer for that guy all day.
To be honest Elliotte, I never thought we’d be sitting here at the beginning of the season talking about how Bo Horvat’s contract extensions not done. I’m shocked that we’re here having this talk.”