Canucks Decided No More Drama in Vancouver
The Vancouver Canucks joined in on the Friday night blockbuster trades ending the dysfunction with the team. Vancouver traded J.T. Miller, Jackson Dorrington, and Erik Brannstrom to the New York Rangers for Filip Chytil, Victor Mancini, and a top 13 protected 2025 first-round draft pick.
NHL Trade: The Vancouver Canucks Trade J.T. Miller to the New York Rangers
This has been an ongoing soap opera in Vancouver since the day Miller and Elias Pettersson became teammates. But this TV drama with the Canucks was poorly scripted and badly acted. Professional wrestling is better scripted than this. When President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford and General Manager Patrik Allvin came out and acknowledged there was a problem and no solution in the room, you knew this was not media fabricated.
Not to mention, head coach Rick Tocchet and captain Quinn Hughes were tired of talking about the issues between those two players. But the players said there was no problem between them. But mostly everyone knew they were not going to say anything in the media, especially in the Canadian market of Vancouver. So Canucks management decided ‘Enough was Enough, and it was Time for Change,’ to quote the late great Owen Hart.
NHL Hockey Insider Elliotte Friedman was on Sportsnet Friday night analyzing the trade and stated to Faizel Khamisa that Jim Rutherford warned the market this was coming and that there was no other choice but to make this trade. People inside of the organization were tired of dealing with the situation.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
NHL Rumors: It Doesn’t Look Like the Situation Will Get Any Better for the Vancouver Canucks
Elliotte Friedman: “When Jim Rutherford came out and did his interview with Gary Mason of The Globe and Mail, and then he did some follow-up interviews, including one with Ian McIntyre from our place (Sportsnet), he was warning everybody. He was saying, Look, we are going to be doing this, and the return might not be what you like. People could argue that they like the interview or they do not like the interview. For me, it was about why he did the interview. He was warning the market.
And the thing I do know is that at the end of last year, when they went to the second round, had that great series with Edmonton, they were in a situation where they were like, this is over, like we are surging. We are growing now. We are opening our window. And whatever problems existed there in the past. Well, they came back this year, and they came back early in the season. And I think there were some meetings at times this year where everybody tried to meet to Okay, let’s solve the problem.
I think coaches tried to intervene. I think management tried to intervene. I think players even said to these two guys, you guys got to sort it out. There was Miller going first time away from the team on his sabbatical, and when he came back, it just wasn’t fixed. And I think what happened is you get people like Rick Tocchet, and you get people like Quinn Hughes, you get people like Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin, and it’s like, enough is enough.
NHL Rumors: Vancouver Canucks Still Want to Move J.T. Miller But How Soon Will It Be?
It’s taking the toll on everybody else there and I just really believe Faizel, at the end of last season, the Vancouver Canucks believed that this was over, that they were starting a new day, and when it came back and they couldn’t fix it. I think enough people said, You know what, it’s time. There’s no more of this. We don’t want to deal with this anymore, and we’ve got to move on.”
The Canucks hopefully solved their issues inside the room. It may take some time to resolve everything fully and for the team to start finding itself again. We know Rutherford and Allvin like to act early. The Four Nations Faceoff gave them an earlier deadline to add and remove from the roster. However, the Vancouver Canucks said we had to do something before it was really too late.
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