Canucks won't feel pressure to deal Miller until 2023 NHL Trade Deadline

The Vancouver Canucks won't feel pressure to trade forward J.T. Miller until the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline approaches, president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford said Friday.

Speaking on "Donnie & Dhali -- The Team" on CHEK television, Rutherford pushed back on the idea of growing impatience surrounding the future of Miller, who led the Canucks in points (99) and assists (67) and tied Elias Pettersson for the Vancouver lead in goals (32) last season. The 29-year-old can become an unrestricted free agent after this season.
Rutherford said the Canucks are trying to re-sign him but said it won't be easy to match Miller's contract expectations.
"I'll state the obvious: It can go two ways," Rutherford said. "We can come to an agreement and keep him and we have a very good player. That's always difficult to do when a player is heading to free agency within a year and he's got really good numbers, so of course what the player is expecting in the way of a contract compared to the team is usually different."
If the sides can't agree on a contract, Rutherford said the Canucks will trade Miller, but there wouldn't be pressure to do so for a while.
"If [trying to sign him] doesn't work, we have to get the best return we can for him," Rutherford said. "But I think when the impatience should come on J.T. Miller is when we get closer to the trade deadline, and if we don't have him signed at that point, making sure that we get a return for him. But I don't see where there's any urgency until we get to the trade deadline."

The Canucks improved their forward depth, speed and penalty-killing with the free agent additions Wednesday of Ilya Mikheyev, who signed a four-year contract; Curtis Lazar, who agreed to a three-year contract; Andrei Kuzmenko, who signed a one-year contract; and Dakota Joshua, who agreed to a two-year contract (financial terms not disclosed). But they hope to bolster a defenseman group that remains unchanged from last season, when Vancouver (40-30-12) missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the sixth time in seven seasons.
Besides adding help at defenseman, Rutherford has talked about wanting to create more space under the NHL salary cap, and both could be accomplished by trading Miller, whose contract has an average annual value of $5.25 million. Since being acquired in a trade with the Tampa Bay Lightning on June 22, 2019, Miller leads Vancouver in goals (74) and points (217) and is tied with defenseman Quinn Hughes for the team lead in assists (143).
Because of the term left on his contract, he has been mentioned in trade rumors since the lead-up to the 2022 NHL Trade Deadline on March 21.
"What are they impatient about?" Rutherford said when asked about concerns that the sides haven't agreed on a contract. "We have our best forward we still have in our lineup. What's the impatience for?"
On Wednesday, when the free agent market opened, Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin said they would be happy to have Miller to start the season.
"Well, I didn't get any calls today," Allvin said. "Hey, he was our best player last year. I think Jim mentioned there has been teams kicking tires, checking in. It hasn't gone much further than that. We're really excited to have J.T. here for another year. I believe he's excited and ready to come back, and who knows, anything could happen over the next couple of weeks, months, but we're happy to have him back."
The Canucks are facing a similar situation with center Bo Horvat, who can become an unrestricted free agent after this season and whose contract has an AAV of $5.5 million. But Rutherford sounded more optimistic about getting an extension done with him.
"These things will pick up with some of the guys we're trying to get signed like Horvat now that we're through the [2022 Upper Deck NHL] Draft, through the initial part of free agency, but clearly he's a guy we want to be with the Canucks for a long time." Rutherford said. "He's the captain of the team. This should be his team going forward, and hopefully we can get something done sooner than later."