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Two former Canucks players are current NHL captains after Bo Horvat gets the C

Rob Williams
Rob Williams
|
Sep 14 2026, 4:59 pm
Two former Canucks players are current NHL captains after Bo Horvat gets the C
@NYIslanders/X

Bo Horvat is an NHL captain again.

Three years after the Vancouver Canucks traded him, Horvat was given the C by the New York Islanders on Monday.

It was a move that came as “no surprise” to two of Horvat’s former Canucks teammates, Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson.

“Just such a great guy, such a hard-working guy. Just such a pro, just comes to the rink and wants to get better each day. So I’m super happy for him,” Boeser told reporters at the Jake Milford Charity Golf Tournament in Surrey on Monday.

“Very happy for him,” Pettersson added. “Such a good guy and player. Extremely happy for him.”

Horvat takes over the role of captain after Anders Lee left for the Utah Mammoth in free agency. The 31-year-old told reporters that Lee called him to congratulate him on the honour.

“Talk about a first-class human being,” Horvat said of his former teammate, per Stefen Rosner of NHL.com.

Horvat is now the second former Canucks player who is a current captain of an NHL team, joining J.T. Miller, who wears the C for the New York Rangers. Horvat is also the third former Canucks player to captain the Isles, joining Trevor Linden (1998-1999) and Mike Peca (2001-2004).

current nhl captains

Nine NHL teams are currently without a captain. (@NHL/X)

The Canucks are one of nine NHL teams that are currently without a captain, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll name one before the season begins. They could give the C to a player like Filip Hronek, but they could also choose to wait.

When asked about how he would go about picking a new captain by Daily Hive in June, new Canucks GM Ryan Johnson made it clear he was open to going without one.

“Through my time in managing teams, I am a firm believer that the captain presents itself,” Johnson said. “The captain eventually rises to the surface, where you just don’t have a choice. It’s in your gut; everybody can feel it.

“I don’t like forcing that position on someone that might change the dynamic of your team, or it might change that player when it’s not that obvious or that accepted by the group. I’ve seen it in my time as a player [and] as a GM in the AHL.”

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