Patric Hornqvist is in an interesting spot as a veteran with a hefty $5.3 million contract. Even though Hornqvist played very well on a line with Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel in the 2018 playoffs, in the last two years Hornqvist hasn’t played much with Crosby. Crosby+Hornqvist played together just 88 5v5 minutes this season, which considering there’s some power play overlap, isn’t much at all.
Hornqvist has morphed into a third line winger role, he didn’t play that much more with Evgeni Malkin either with just 126 even strength minutes this year.