The Canucks kickstarted trade season with Monday’s blockbuster deal sending captain Bo Horvat to the Islanders.

But they’re likely not done.

A day after the big trade, Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin joined me and Ryan Rishaug on our Got Yer Back podcast, discussing how the trade went down and what could come next.

Rishaug began the interview by asking Allvin about the immediate aftermath of the trade. Allvin said reaching out to Horvat to inform him wasn’t easy.

“Especially our longtime captain, Bo Horvat, being here for nine years and playing really well for the Canucks and being a great leader in the community on and off the ice,” he said. “That was hard, one of my tougher calls to make so far in my tenure here.”

And the timing of the trade? There is no perfect science to it. Why did the Canucks decide to pull the trigger just under five weeks out? Does the deal get better or worse if you wait until closer to the March 3 trade deadline?

“I rely a lot on (president of hockey operations) Jim Rutherford’s expertise, being around the league for so long and being a very successful general manager,” Allvin said, which was unsurprising to hear, considering all the January trades Rutherford has made over the years. “I think we felt really comfortable with the return at this point and not risking missing out on a deal — or a player getting injured.”

The injury risk is an excellent point for a trade chip, as we saw Wednesday with the Blue Jackets announcing Gustav Nyqvist is expected to miss the rest of the regular season. An injury that made Horvat untradeable would have been an absolute nightmare for the Canucks.