Since arriving in Vancouver in 2019, acquired by the Canucks from the Tampa Bay Lightning, J.T. Miller has been a star. He leads the team in scoring with 118 points in 122 regular season games, 24 ahead of Brock Boeser and Quinn Hughes tied for second. He was one of the biggest reasons the team reached the second round in the bubble playoffs last year, scoring 18 points in 17 postseason games.
Still, there have been bouts of inconsistency at times, and recently some speculation has emerged over whether he wants to even stay in Vancouver. During the Headlines segment on Hockey Night In Canada, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet explained that he went right to the source and asked Miller:
No, he does not want to be traded, he does not want to leave, he wants to be a Vancouver Canuck. He has no intentions of leaving. ’We have a good team here’ and he wants to be a part of it.
Miller, 28, has two seasons left on the five-year, $26.25MM deal he signed with the Lightning in 2018 and carries a cap hit of $5.25MM. That’s a very reasonable number for a player that is nearly a point-per-game for the Canucks, even if this season didn’t result in much success for the team.
Of course, when the Canucks acquired Miller they voided the partial no-trade clause that had originally been included in the deal, meaning he technically wouldn’t be able to stop a move. A trade seems very unlikely though given Vancouver GM Jim Benning’s recent comments about making the playoffs next season. In fact, Miller is likely a piece to build around if the postseason is a realistic goal.
The same can’t be said about everyone on the roster and there are changes coming in Vancouver this summer. But for now, at least, Miller isn’t looking to be moved.
If I know benning, Miller is gonzo!
At which point he will definitely lose his job. Unless he has some dirt on F. Aquilini, then he keeps it regardless.
If they won’t trade Vertanen (and instead sign him to way more than he was worth) they won’t trade Jimmithy Timmothy
Who is gonna take Virtanen with his legal situation ongoing?
I suspect nobody. The KHL awaits.
Trade Miller back to the Rangers. We need a forward that can win face offs. I would past with Hajek or Reunenan and Strome for Miller!
What do you expect him to say? I want the hell out of here? Vancouver needs a makeover and Miller is someone who can actually fetch some return.
Who the hell would want to stay in the North Pole?!
Vancouver is considered one of the nicest cities on the planet.
Shhhhh, forwhomjoshbelltolled. Vancouver is a dirty, awful city full of criminals and poor living on the streets. It rains all year round and it’s acidic rain to boot. Nobody should want to live there, and if you have property there sell it now for as cheap as you can before your investment bottoms out.
Exactly. Vancouver is the most expensive city in North America…because no one wants to live there.
I think I found Don Cherry’s burner account. It’s definitely not Warren Buffet’s.
San Francisco is 2nd on the list of most expensive cities to live in and you’d have to be nuts to want to move there.
Price doesn’t necessarily equal quality of living.
San Francisco is currently a technology industry hub with lots of high paid skilled employees and employers. Vancouver (and Island) are the only reprieve from snow and mosquitoes something Canada produces in abundance. If it isn’t too cold to go outside, your blood gets drained. That’s why hockey is successful, at least when you are a kid and moving around on the ice when it’s -40 you are generating some warmth. But if you are outside in summer playing basketball, soccer, football and especially baseball make sure you are marinated in Deet and even then it might not be enough.
Price doesn’t necessarily equal quality of living, no.
It does, however, indicate how much people want to live there. The free hand of the invisible market has spoken.
A scarcity of available housing can just as well produce that cost effect. California isn’t losing a congressional seat because people are rushing to move there afterall.
More housing and people in a few square blocks of San Fransisco than in all of Wyoming.
When MILLIONS of people live in a place AND it still doesn’t have enough housing for all of the other people who want to live there, making the argument that no one wants to live there is quite bizarre.
There were a bunch of great Pittsburgh kids in Miller’s draft. He was the only one the Pens didn’t pass on, as the Rangers grabbed him first. Him, John Gibson, Vincent Trocheck, Stephen Johns. All better than the guys they took.