'Too long and too much money' was all it took to get Bo Horvat

But with an Islanders team in win-now mode and a need to ensure a blockbuster trade was not for naught, Lamoriello had little choice but to sign Horvat to an eight-year, $68 million deal

Bo knows long-term deals after signing with the Islanders for eight years. (Photo courtesy New York Islanders Twitter account)

We’ll leave it to you to decide whether Bo Horvat’s eight-year, $68 million contract extension is, in the words of New York Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello, “too long and too much money.” But if it is either or both of those things, that’s because the Islanders put themselves in a position to have to overpay in the first place. And they were prepared to do that because Lamoriello is pushing all of his chips to the middle of the table in an effort to win a Stanley Cup in the short-term.

Time will tell whether or not that notion is folly. On one hand, the Islanders are only a season-and-a-half removed from being a top-four team in the NHL in back-to-back years. On the other, they’re in very serious danger of missing the playoffs for the second straight season. The website moneypuck.com has the Islanders’ chances of making the playoffs in 2022-23 pegged at just 13.2 percent. But thanks to Horvat’s extension, short-term doesn’t necessarily mean just this season.