The New York Islanders and Vancouver Canucks pulled off the first big blockbuster of this year's NHL trade deadline season. Bo Horvat is headed to Long Island after spending the first eight and a half years of his career with the Canucks.

The trade surprised Horvat, but many expected a deal to happen. Now the question is, which side won this deal? Did they both win? Or did no one win? Let's take a look at the Bo Horvat trade.

Full Islanders-Canucks trade

The New York Islanders acquired Bo Horvat from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for forwards Anthony Beauvillier and Aatu Raty, as well as a 2023 1st round draft pick.

The 1st round draft pick is top 12 protected. If the pick falls within the top 12, the Canucks will instead get an unprotected 2024 1st round draft pick.

The Canucks are retaining 25% of Horvat's salary in this trade. That equates to about $1.375M of his cap hit.

Vancouver Canucks trade Bo Horvat

The Canucks are in need of a full rebuild at this point. The organization is in the headlines for the wrong reasons these days, and the play on the ice isn't much better.

Vancouver had little in the way of leverage here. Horvat is an unrestricted free agent at season's end, and at this point everyone knew his future wasn't with the Canucks.

In that sense, Vancouver mostly does well here. Beauvillier is a former first-round pick who has shown promise in the NHL. He has surpassed 20 goals in a season once before, and gotten close to 20 goals on two separate occasions.

The 25-year-old has taken a step back, however. Beauvillier scored just 12 goals last year and only has nine goals on the season thus far in 2022-23. He also has never recorded a 40-point season in his career.

Beauvillier is still young enough that the Canucks can help him develop. However, Raty represents more of a mixed bag here. The 20-year-old Finnish forward was once a highly valued prospect, but has seen his stock slip in recent times.

Raty was once a top prospect in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft. However, he fell to the second round, where the Islanders took a flier on him.

To his credit, Raty earned some of his stock back in 2021-22, posting 40 points in the Finnish League with Jukurit. However, the transition to North America hasn't been smooth. He had seven goals in 27 AHL games, and two goals in 12 NHL games this season.

Then there's the matter of the first-round pick. This pick is top 12 protected, but it has a decent chance of transitioning to Vancouver this year. The Islanders are out of the playoffs by two points. If Horvat is unable to lead them to the playoffs, chances are this first-round pick falls in the 13-16 range.

It's a shrewd move on behalf of Vancouver to acquire this pick. Instead of accepting a late first-round pick from a surefire playoff team, they targeted a team on the bubble.

New York Islanders acquire Bo Horvat

The Islanders certainly needed a spark on their first line. Horvat can provide that spark. They also needed a spark on their languishing power play unit. Horvat thrives on the power play and will improve that unit.

However, this move feels a bit off. The fit certainly makes sense, and Horvat should play well on Long Island. But New York is not a Bo Horvat away from making a deep playoff run.

Even with Horvat, the teams around them in the playoff hunt look better. The Buffalo Sabres are a rejuvenated team with the emergence of Tage Thompson. And the Florida Panthers are coming into their own thanks to Matthew Tkachuk's elite play.

For the Islanders, center wasn't really a need. Mathew Barzal was just extended and is a fine top-line center. Brock Nelson is a fine second-line center. Casey Cizikas and Jean-Gabriel Pageau are capable on the bottom six, especially in defensive situations.

Perhaps this move is more about Barzal than anything else. He has issues winning faceoffs, whereas Horvat doesn't have those issues. The Islanders could move Barzal to the wing and have Horvat center the line. In that case, things make a little bit more sense.

However, it is a bit of a weird move to extend your top-line center only to give up a haul for his replacement and move him to the wing months later. The Islanders got a great player, but there's more beneath the surface here.

Final thoughts and grades

This trade isn't exactly amazing for either team. The Canucks got interesting pieces back in Raty and Beauvillier. And that first-round pick could be better than expected by the time the draft lottery arrives.

The Islanders acquired the best player in the trade. However, they need more than just Bo Horvat, and Horvat likely won't continue to play at the level he's currently at. New York just extended their number one center and are going to pay big again if they extend Horvat.

Overall, this is an okay trade at best for both teams. However, I'll give the slight edge to the Canucks here because they got a lot in this trade despite not having much in the way of leverage.

Vancouver Canucks grade: B-

New York Islanders grade: C+