The last time the Vancouver Canucks had a captaincy vacancy, it came with a considerable dose of controversy.

In 2008, the Canucks named Roberto Luongo as captain, becoming the first team to bestow that honour upon a goaltender since Bill Durnan led the Montreal Canadiens in the 1947-48 season.

Less than two years later, Luongo gave up the ‘C’ (which, as a goaltender, he wasn’t allowed to wear on his jersey anyway) to put his “whole focus on goaltending”. It came as the direct result of not being able to advance very far in the playoffs, and, lo and behold, the next season the team made it all the way to the Cup Final.

The captaincy was given to Henrik Sedin, who retired this year as one of the most respected leaders in the NHL.

Expect Vancouver’s next captain to be named without an ounce of controversy.

Bo Horvat and Brock Boeser have emerged as the new faces of the Canucks in the aftermath of the Sedins retiring, and the former’s relative seniority (he turned 23 in April, are you feeling old yet?) and responsible play at both ends of the ice make him the natural choice to lead the rebuilding Canucks.

Factor in the fact that the London, Ontario native is having success playing with Canada's best non-playoff NHLers at the World Championships and it seems extremely likely that the Canucks will make the announcement before the start of this coming season.  

So, if it's a virtual lock that Horvat is named captain, why not make a little money off it?

While we would never advocate for anything illegal, it’s completely within the boundaries of provincial and federal law to place money on certain sports events through the British Columbia Lottery Corporation.

If you click on the above link, you’ll see that Horvat has 1.25 odds to be named captain for the 2018/19 season. That means that for every dollar wagered on Horvat, the bettor makes $1.25. So, yeah, you’ll have to throw down a fair amount of money to make any meaningful profit, but if you have the stones for it, it’s more or less a sure thing.

Here are the official odds from the B.C. Lottery Corp.

Bo Horvat                 1.25

Brock Boeser            5.50

Chris Tanev              6.50

Loui Eriksson           10.00

Trevor Linden          500.00

Brandon Sutter         4.00

Erik Gudbranson      5.50

Alexander Edler        6.50

Brad Marchand         100.00

Roberto Luongo        500.00

The oddsmakers clearly had some fun with the subject, as many names on the list, including Linden, Luongo and Marchand, are extremely unlikely to play hockey for the Canucks, let alone be named captain.

Horvat is the easy favourite to be named Vancouver's captain, if the Canucks decide to go with one. The best part? If the Canucks don’t designate anyone to wear the ‘C, all bets are void, meaning any money wagered is returned to the bettor.

But, you know, if the Canucks decide to go off script and name Brandon Sutter or Chris Tanev captain, we never told you otherwise.

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