The rift between the Canucks two star centres is a hot topic again after Jim Rutherford’s comments on Tuesday.
Rutherford’s words did hammer home that these issues have been going on for an extended period, which prompts a question: Why sign both Miller and Pettersson to long-term deals if there was chance for this situation to be so volatile?
The Canucks inked Miller to a seven-year, $56 million contract in September 2022. They put pen to paper on an eight-year, $92.8 million contract with Pettersson last March.
Fifteen years, $148.8 million.
MacIntyre asked Rutherford about that point blank.
“Because these players are top players for us. And if you have signed players and it doesn’t work out, you’re in a better position to get a return for them,” Rutherford told him.
Maybe. But there were reports ahead of the Pettersson signing that they were working on a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes with him as the centrepiece. We’ll never know for certain what the return was going to be, but it’s easy to wonder if this franchise wouldn’t be in a better position to move forward and build on last year’s playoff success than it is now.
The stories about Miller and Pettersson clashing weren’t nearly as common even then. It was the Canucks wanting to make a trade then, instead of needing to make one now. They instead took the risk and tried to make it work. And now Canucks fans are getting days like Tuesday.
From a media lens, he deserves kudos. We always groan and grouse about people not saying anything. He certainly said plenty.
“I felt like for a long time that there was a solution here because everybody has worked on it, including the parties involved,” Rutherford told Mason of the rift. “But it only gets resolved for a short period of time and then it festers again, and so it certainly appears like there’s not a good solution that would keep this group together.
“We’re talking about two of our top players, certainly our two best forwards. It can really be tough on a franchise — not only present, but into the future — when you’re planning on peaking this team into a contending team and then you find out that’s not going to happen. Or at least it’s not going to happen with the group we have now. Then you have to put together a new plan.”
Rutherford’s savvy. He’s been at this for awhile. He knew exactly what the aftermath was going to be after talking to Mason, talking to MacIntyre. It feels very much that he was getting the message out to the Canuck fan base to not get their hopes up about a marquee player coming back in any swap. He was trying to let them down easy.
He said as much to Mason, explaining: “We’ll have to do the best we can in trades. Whatever assets you get in return, you may turn them into something else. And we have to work our way back into being a contending team.”
There was also this: “So yeah, if a centre goes out of here we have to get some kind of centre back but it’s not going to be the same as the centre going out. It might not even be a No. 2 centre, but you’d have to do the best with what we have until we figure out how to fill that spot back in. And then, of course, you have to get extra things (in any trade) that you can either use in the future to flip for NHL players now or for other positions or things like that.”
As MacIntyre pointed out, maybe Rutherford’s comments make Miller further loosen any grip he has with the no-movement clause in his contract. Pettersson’s no-movement starts next season.
Rutherford did also plant the idea of keeping both Miller and Pettersson until the end of the season. That has to be in play. The trade market could be better in the summer.
“We’ve seen how the team is capable of playing, and we’ve also seen how it’s played in an inconsistent manner,” Rutherford explained in MacIntyre. “I watch what everybody else watches, and … we don’t know what we’re going to get. But certainly this team is capable of being a playoff team.
“We’ll deal with our team as normal as we can under these circumstances. And it’s what I said earlier: If something makes sense for the Canucks (in a trade), we’ll take a look at it, and if it doesn’t, the players will stay and continue to try to work through this situation.”
Keeping Hughes in Canuck colours has to be an overriding aim here. He is the best defenceman this franchise has ever had. He’s arguably the best defenceman in the game right now, and maybe even the best player overall. His brothers Jack and Luke are with the New Jersey Devils, and Quinn becomes an unrestricted free agent after the 2026-27 campaign.
The Canucks don’t have to get this all figured out tomorrow, but the clock is certainly ticking.