In the NHL, they eat their young.

It’s a dog-eat-dog league, and the pups are usually brought along slowly. It’s something of a paradox that NHL teams are increasingly willing to give younger players an extended look — even an everyday roster spot — while also carefully managing their role and ice time.

Unless we’re discussing a recent top draft pick, young NHL forwards generally break into the league on the fourth line. They watch games from the press box semi-regularly and they’re certainly not counted on to kill penalties and match up against the opposition’s best.

That is unless they’re Vancouver Canucks centreman Bo Horvat.

In his sophomore campaign, Horvat, 20, has been carrying an almost unfair burden for the club. He’s been the Canucks’ single most frequently used penalty-killing forward, he leads the team in even strength defensive zone draws, and he’s playing more than four additional minutes per contest than he averaged during his rookie season.

“It’s a lot tougher obviously this year,” Horvat told Sportsnet of his expanded role following Canucks practice in Toronto on Friday afternoon. “To get matched up against some of the best players in the league where last year I was just kind of a fourth-line guy … to have that opportunity this year, it’s been tough, but I’m enjoying it.”

The demands placed upon a two-way centreman in the NHL are enormous, which is partly why it’s the veteran players that are most often counted on to handle the heavy defensive lifting. You simply can’t find another 20-year-old centre soaking up more than two short-handed minutes per contest in the NHL this season.

It’s appropriate that Horvat’s circumstances are unique, since he’s a unique type of player. Even at the age of 19, he was Vancouver’s best faceoff man. His calling card has always been his high level of comfort and aptitude playing the game away from the puck.

“I think that Bo’s biggest strength is his defensive ability,” Canucks coach Willie Desjardins said on Friday.

It’s a role that Horvat has always been quick to embrace.

“It means the world to me honestly, (that the coaches) have faith in me to take a big faceoff, kill a big penalty at the end of the game, or playing 5-on-3,” Horvat said. “I love that kind of stuff.”

Though it’s evident that Horvat possesses a natural talent for the defensive side of the game, it’s fair to wonder whether he’s perhaps being counted on to do too much, too soon.

A year ago Horvat was the league’s most offensively productive everyday fourth-line centreman, but his 5-on-5 scoring rate has cratered this season in an enlarged role, as has his individual shot rate.

Where Horvat appeared to find an extra gear in the second half of his rookie campaign, the Canucks are back to being pinned in their own end too frequently when he’s on the ice at even strength. The Canucks have been outscored nearly two-to-one with Horvat on the ice at 5-on-5, and while unkind bounces are part of the story, the club is also surrendering shots against at a higher rate with Horvat on the ice than they are with any other forward.

Horvat has also struggled on the penalty kill. Despite his advanced ability to win faceoffs, Horvat has managed to win just 11 of 39 shorthanded draws, according to faceoffs.net. Among all regular NHL penalty-killing forwards, Horvat has also had the largest negative impact on his club’s shots against rate, according to hockeyanalysis.com.

“For me, getting into it and getting the ice I am, it’s definitely a learning curve,” Horvat admits. “But I expect myself to keep getting better through the course of the year and eventually everything is going to come naturally for me.”

In the second half of last season, Horvat took off. He figured out the NHL game.

Then 19, Horvat was one of Vancouver’s most consistently impactful players down the stretch and into the playoffs. He occasionally dominated in a first-round series loss to the Calgary Flames.

Desjardins is confident that it’s just a matter of time before Horvat grows into his daunting new role.

“He’s trying hard to make things work,” Desjardins said Friday. “He’ll break out of it, he’ll just break out of it, he’s a good player and he’ll break through it and good things will happen.”

This isn’t the first time the Canucks have thrown their blue chip centreman to the wolves and trusted him to claw his way out. It took some time and hard work and development, but Horvat figured out how to excel at the NHL level last season and he’s confident he can pull off something similar again this year.

“Last year I just played five-on-five, now I’m playing power play, penalty kill, so it’s going to take some time to adjust to it,” Horvat said. “There’s still a lot of games to be played and eventually it’ll be more familiar to me.”

The Canucks are counting on it.