J.T. Miller has been by the Vancouver Canucks to the New York Rangers for Filip Chytil, Victor Mancini and a first-round pick.
Also going to the Rangers are prospect Jackson Dorrington and spare part defenceman Erik Brännström.
In exchange, the Canucks are receiving centre Filip Chytil, defenceman Victor Mancini and a conditional first-round pick. Crucially, the Canucks are not retaining any of the MIller contract, a huge win for Vancouver which will allow them to pursue a more effective replacement for Miller in another trade; the conditional first-rounder is a useful trade chip as well.
Chytil is an intriguing addition, though with huge risk. He was developing well as a pro — he had 45 points two seasons ago — but suffered a serious concussion last season and most observers say he’s not returned as the player he was. But obviously the Canucks are ready to take on the bet, even with him being 25 and pretty much developed as a player. He had 11 goals and nine assists in 45 games for the Rangers this season.
The hope now, presumably, will be to see if the removal of Miller re-sets Pettersson’s mentality and gets him back to the superstar-quality player he was two seasons ago. He had 102 points in 2022-23 and appeared set for even bigger things last season: he had a sensational January and was named a star of the month by the NHL. He was on course for another 100-point season and then his game fell off a clip. He said he was dealing with knee tendinitis but he clearly was lacking confidence as well. He was a non-factor in the playoffs.
He’s been mostly mediocre this season.
Mancini, 22, is a big, strong right-shot defenceman played 15 games for the Rangers this season, his first pro season after signing last season following his third season of NCAA hockey with Nebraska-Omaha. The Canucks are known fans of the Nebraska-Omaha program, so it’s safe to say they’d had their eye on the player for a while.
It’s not the first time Miller has missed a game in Dallas because of trade talks.
Remember two years ago? In late February 2023, Miller was a surprise non-traveller to Dallas a few days before the trade deadline. The team claimed it was due to a week-to-week injury, but ended up being cover for trade talks as he instead played the next weekend.
At the time, he had agreed to a contract extension the previous fall, but his new contract, which included a no-movement clause, hadn’t yet kicked in. The deal then was with the Pittsburgh Penguins, but the Penguins’ new owners, FSG Sports Group, ended up quashing the deal.
In accepting a trade to the Rangers, Miller returns to the team that he was drafted and played his first seasons in the NHL. A fiery and combative personality, the Rangers decided to move him to Tampa at the 2018 trade deadline in a complicated move that saw him move alongside Ryan McDonagh to Tampa in exchange for a bunch of prospects — Vlad Namestnikov and Brett Howden most notably — and a 1st round pick.
The Lightning then traded Miller to Vancouver a year later.
In Vancouver, Miller found a new level. Handed a first-line role, he scored at a point-per-game pace for almost his entire stint in Vancouver. He was on course to be an all-time great Canuck.
But the relationship between him and Pettersson boiled over this season, it’s still not known exactly how. And Miller himself ran into some sort of emotional wall, taking a 10-game personal leave earlier this season. Sources have suggested a serious issue arose around Miller, but no one has clarified on the record what it was. But it was serious enough that the weight of it all prompted Miller to take his leave.
And after he returned, he was rarely the force he’d been for so much of his time as a Canuck.
The Canucks will now try to turn the page and save their season.