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“But to take the captaincy away from him? I don’t think I could do it.”

Horvat already possesses a natural ability to say and do the right things, and it’s a big reason why so many think he should be the next captain.

But that needs to wait. He needs time still to fit comfortably in the NHL, figure out how to handle losses and what to say after them, too, because in Vancouver being accountable is one of the most difficult things about the job.

The youngest captain in the league is Connor McDavid, but he’s also the best player in the NHL, a marvellous talent so good he could get this Canucks team into the playoffs.

Most of the other captains in the league range from their mid-20s to 30s. The only other young captain is 24-year-old Gabriel Landeskog in Colorado, but modelling your team on the Avalanche is the equivalent of modelling your public relations department on Sean Spicer.

Photo by DARRYL DYCK / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Horvat said Tuesday he sees a path to being a first-line centre in the NHL, and given the number of people he’s already proven wrong, he deserves the benefit of the doubt.

It won’t be easy. Teams started playing Horvat differently as the year went on, something that began in earnest after his all-star appearance and intensified when Markus Granlund was hurt for the season, which essentially vaporized the Sedins.

So the season that started with Horvat being used to shut top lines down, ended with the league’s best defensive players game-planning for him.

“It’s crazy how it flipped,” Horvat said. “It seemed like every time I was put out there on the road, their best D-pairing would come out and try to shut me down.”

The all-star game was really the coming-out party for Horvat.

“You could see a difference on the ice,” Horvat said. “The all-stars from other teams started talking to me on the ice. There was a certain respect in it and as a young guy, seeing that happen to me was pretty cool.”

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