{"id":135751,"date":"2023-02-22T08:30:53","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T13:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=135751"},"modified":"2023-02-21T22:29:56","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T03:29:56","slug":"pros-cons-jt-miller-trade-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/02\/22\/pros-cons-jt-miller-trade-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Pros and Cons of a J.T. Miller Trade Redux"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thinking of trades as March 3rd approaches isn&#8217;t strange. Thinking of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/millejt01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-02-20_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">J.T. Miller<\/a> trade is, but here we are running the rumour mill once again in a yearly sequel no one wanted.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">What has led to JT Miller&#39;s name being back in the rumour mill?<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/frank_seravalli?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@frank_seravalli<\/a> joined <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Canucks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Canucks<\/a> Central with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/danriccio_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@danriccio_<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SatiarShah?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@SatiarShah<\/a> to discuss that and more!<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Sportsnet 650 (@Sportsnet650) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Sportsnet650\/status\/1627846818725007360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 21, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>What a J.T. Miller Trade Does for Vancouver<\/h2>\n<p>What kind of lunatic team would trade away a player who hasn&#8217;t even started his seven-year contract extension? It&#8217;s not actually realistic they&#8217;d so dramatically reverse their biggest decision of the off-season, is it? How could a move like that be justified?<\/p>\n<p>Given that it&#8217;s the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/02\/21\/pros-and-cons-of-a-luke-schenn-trade\/\" target=\"_self\">Vancouver Canucks<\/a>, they probably don&#8217;t have to. That style of move would likely get a nod of familiarity and comments of &#8220;yeah, sure, why not? That&#8217;s something they&#8217;d do.&#8221; After all, management decided to sign Miller instead of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/horvabo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-02-20_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bo Horvat<\/a> despite the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2022\/11\/26\/trading-bo-horvat-causes-a-problem-for-vancouver-canucks\/\" target=\"_self\">obvious question<\/a> of why it should have been both or neither.<\/p>\n<h3>A Bit of History<\/h3>\n<p>At the risk of being overly obvious, Miller&#8217;s contract status has been talked about before. A LOT. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2022\/08\/04\/why-we-are-still-waiting-on-a-j-t-miller-trade\/\" target=\"_self\">Pre-signing<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2022\/09\/03\/jt-miller-contract-canucks-plan\/\" target=\"_self\">post-signing<\/a>, and now post-signing, pre-enactment and it&#8217;s all <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/nhl\/video\/32-thoughts-why-maple-leafs-traded-for-oreilly\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Elliotte Friedman&#8217;s fault<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Miller has had a brilliant resurgence in finding a landing spot in Vancouver. He&#8217;s at better than a point-per-game in his 250+ games there unlike previous stops. In 435 games with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/lightning\/\" target=\"_self\">Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/rangers\/\" target=\"_self\">New York Rangers<\/a>, he scored 95 times and 237 points.<\/p>\n<p>As we mentioned during the Horvat speculation, a J.T. Miller trade would seem to naturally follow moving the captain out. Keeping an older, more expensive player to fill the gap doesn&#8217;t make much sense on a rebuilding team. His signing is the biggest indicator that team management truly believed Vancouver was ready to push into the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>As Mike Tyson says, everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face. The plan has already changed &#8211; it&#8217;s only a question of how dramatically.<\/p>\n<h3>The Positive<\/h3>\n<p>There is a benefit to Miller&#8217;s absence, but it&#8217;s all about potential. Having an extra $8 million available starting next year is always welcome. Or $7 million, if the team needs to retain a little to pump up the return.<\/p>\n<p>Another benefit &#8211; directly to the management-level folks &#8211; is immediate self-correction. Fans in Vancouver are very much unaccustomed to any of the team&#8217;s White Collar folks admitting to their mistakes. Such a move would go a long way to regaining fans&#8217; trust.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not like the team wouldn&#8217;t get a good return for Miller, either. In all the talk about his contract, it&#8217;s simply wrong to call it a burden for what he provides. But Vancouver isn&#8217;t the right team for that deal. Since they missed returning a right-side defenceman in the Horvat deal, this is one more chance to fill a gap.<\/p>\n<p>Draft picks are absolutely going to be part of any return unless it&#8217;s entirely young prospects with a salary balancer. In either case, the age correction alone gives the team more focus on the future.<\/p>\n<p>And, let&#8217;s be frank: Vancouver has traded away their highest scorer. A J.T. Miller trade would make the Canucks that much worse. While players never tank and coaches never tank, there comes a time when enough skill gets shovelled out the door that a tank simply happens.<\/p>\n<h3>The Negative<\/h3>\n<p>J.T. Miller is at over a point per game during his Canucks stay. There are no obvious candidates to replace his scoring, and even if he isn&#8217;t as good a centre as he is on the wing, he would be their second centre traded in a matter of weeks. As of now, there aren&#8217;t even any obscure candidates to replace him.<\/p>\n<p>The Canucks depth chart is sorely lacking for prospective centres, as it was before the season began. Losing Miller leaves <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/p\/petteel01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-02-20_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Elias Pettersson<\/a> then&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/a\/amanni01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-02-20_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nils \u00c5man<\/a>? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/studnja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-02-20_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jack Studnicka<\/a>? Eventually, there is hope that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/r\/ratyaa01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-02-20_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aatu R\u00e4ty<\/a> will grow into an attacking centre, but relying on a 20-year-old to not only develop perfectly is a hard ask.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s one thing to plan for the future. It&#8217;s quite another to sell the present with no plan at all beyond &#8220;we hope&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>And there is a downside to the tank, as well. Players are real people, not characters in a computer game who don&#8217;t feel the effect of 15 losses in 20 games. Even if a team gets young talent into the lineup, you never want to teach that young talent to lose.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thinking of trades as March 3rd approaches isn&#8217;t strange. Thinking of a J.T. Miller trade is, but here we are running the rumour mill once again in a yearly sequel no one wanted. What has led to JT Miller&#39;s name being back in the rumour mill?@frank_seravalli joined #Canucks Central with @danriccio_ and @SatiarShah to discuss [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3171,"featured_media":135774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,4547,4548],"tags":[1630],"class_list":["post-135751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canucks","category-hockey","category-nhl","tag-j-t-miller"],"modified_by":"Noah Foster, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}