Canucks GM opens up about Rangers star: ‘I have a lot of respect for J.T. Miller’

Apparently that rift in Vancouver that led to J.T. Miller being traded to the New York Rangers this season was not the star forward’s fault.

There’s been much speculation as to what led up to Miller’s departure from the Canucks, with rampant rumors focusing on a feud between him and Vancouver’s other star center, Elias Pettersson.

Well, it appears that it wasn’t just about two players. And interestingly, Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin seemed to take a shot at the players on his team while standing up for Miller during a town hall with season-ticket holders on Thursday.

“J.T. Miller is a phenomenal hockey player, 32 years old, he probably understood that he doesn’t get that many more shots to win the [Stanley] Cup,” Allvin explained. “He was extremely prepared coming in (this season) and some of the younger guys thought that maybe this is gonna be easy and maybe they weren’t prepared to the same level he was.”

Allvin didn’t delve into specifics of what happened next. But you can imagine. Miller is as intense and serious as they come. If he believed not everyone was dialed in like him, or didn’t prepare properly after a 50-win, first-place finish in 2023-24, then it’s easy to see that he let his teammates know his dissatisfaction.

Things got so bad for Miller and his family that he took a 10-game leave of absence for personal reasons in mid-November. Ironically, he began the leave when the Rangers were in town to visit the Canucks on Nov. 19.

Listening to Allvin, it sounds like he doesn’t blame Miller at all, even though the GM ended up trading him to the Rangers on Jan. 31.

“Talking with J.T., i don’t think J.T. ever wanted to leave Vancouver,” Allvin explained. “But at that point he felt it was best for him, his family and the Canucks that he was going somewhere else. It was emotional. It was hard … leading up to the final decision.

“But I have a lot of respect for J.T. Miller. He’s a good hockey player and a good person.”

J.T. Miller believed a ‘fresh start’ was needed, welcomed trade to Rangers

Of course, the Rangers traded for Miller because they were in the midst of a soap opera themselves. Trades. Players upset with management. A string of no-show performances. And some putrid play on the ice.

Miller missed the worst of the issues in New York and helped change the culture down the stretch of the season after arriving back with the Rangers, who traded him away to the Tampa Bay Lightning back in 2018. He had 35 points (11 goals, 24 assists) in 32 games after the trade.

But not even Miller could save the Rangers. They missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in four seasons. In fact, they ended up with a worse record (39-36-7; 85 points) than the Canucks (38-30-14; 90 points), who also missed the playoffs.

Miller briefly addressed his departure from the Canucks before his first game against them March 22.

“I don’t want to get into too much detail, but, yeah, I think a fresh start was needed,” Miller said. “I’ve got nothing bad to say about the Canucks or Vancouver as a city. We loved it there. It felt like home, and that’s all you can ask for. But, unfortunately, this is a business, and in the business end of things, it was getting difficult.”

Allvin alluded to the fact there were problems before this season that were addressed by management and the coaching staff, a “lingering problem,” he called it.

There’s plenty of vagueness there. But Allvin was clear in his feelings about Miller.