NY Islanders hit with offseason injury concern as Bo Horvat exits World Championship

Potential tough news coming out of the IIHF World Championship for the New York Islanders. The team announced on Tuesday that center Bo Horvat is heading back to Long Island early after suffering a lower-body injury while playing for Team Canada.

According to Hockey Canada, Horvat’s been removed from the roster and replaced by highly touted draft prospect Porter Martone, who’s expected to be a top-five pick this June. The Islanders confirmed Tuesday that Horvat picked up the injury during the tournament and will be evaluated by team doctors. Horvat had been rolling, putting up four goals and four assists in six games, and looked right at home wearing the Maple Leaf. But he was noticeably absent during the third period and overtime in Canada’s 2-1 shootout loss to Finland on Monday — now we know why.

This was Horvat’s second World Championship appearance (his first was way back in 2018), and he had said at breakup day on April 19 that this tourney was a key “stepping stone” in his push to make Team Canada’s 2026 Olympic roster. This is Horvat's first real injury hiccup since he arrived from Vancouver in January 2023. Since joining the team, the guy's been very durable and missed just one game each of his two full seasons with the Islanders. There's very little information on the extent of the injury. Hopefully, this isn’t anything serious, and it’s more of a precaution than anything else.

Meanwhile, Noah Dobson is still going strong for Team Canada, with a solid showing of one goal and three assists in seven games so far. The tournament wraps up this Sunday, so we’ll keep an eye on how things shake out, but the focus now shifts to Horvat’s health and awaiting assurances that he'll be ready for the start of training camp in September.