Top 50 Canucks players of all time: #20 – JT Miller

Join us this summer as we count down the top 50 Vancouver Canucks players of all time! #20: JT Miller

JT Miller’s time with the Vancouver Canucks began in light controversy, and it ended in heavy controversy. But the time in between made it pretty non-controversial to slot Miller in as one of the 20 greatest Canucks of all time.

The date was June 22, 2019, and it was Day 2 of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, hosted in Vancouver by the Canucks themselves. The day prior, the Canucks had drafted Vasily Podkolzin at 10th overall. And fans were happy about that. It seemed like another step in the direction of rebuilding the team – which had missed the playoffs for four straight years – around a new young core of Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson, and Brock Boeser.

Then there was a trade to announce, and it was a fairly big one: the Canucks had traded their 2020 first-round pick (with protections), a 2019 third-round pick, and third-string goalie Marek Mazanec to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a then-26-year-old Miller.

The initial response was significantly less than positive. Many felt that the Canucks should be making draft picks, not dealing them, and that it was far too early in the rebuild process to be exchanging firsts for veterans. Especially veterans who had career-highs of 58 points, and who had seemingly worn out their welcome at two previous stops.

In the end, however, it didn’t take long for those complaints to quiet down.

Miller became an entirely different player essentially from the moment he slipped on a Vancouver uniform. That first season saw him post new career standards across the board of 27 goal s, 45 assists, and 72 points in just 69 games. It saw the birth of the “Lotto Line” with Boeser and Pettersson. And it also saw the Canucks go on a slightly-extended three-round run through the 2020 bubble playoffs – a run that Miller completed with 18 points in 17 games.

Something Miller also did that season was become an instant fan favourite. He fought Matthew Tkachuk and won. He quickly earned a letter on his chest. He helped the Canucks transition from the Sedin era to a new, exciting brand of hockey far sooner than anyone anticipated.

By the end of Year One, few were complaining about the lost first-rounder, which the New Jersey Devils would eventually obtai n and use on Shakir Mukhamadullin, a player with just 33 games in his NHL career thus far.

The pandemic-shortened schedule and a bout with COVID-19 itself kept Miller to just 46 points in 53 games – a fine result by his previous standards, but a tad disappointing after his Vancouver debut. That disappointment, however, would not last.

Miller came out gangbusters to start the 2021-22 season, and he never slowed down. By the end, he’d notched 99 points in 80 games. In doing so, he led the team in scoring by a full 31 points. At the same time, he entered the final year of a contract that was paying him an average of just $5.25 million.

Now, many held that the smart money at the time was to sell high on Miller. Most thought that anothe r 99-point season was unlikely, and that to sign Miller – now approaching 30 – to a long-term contract was a mistake.

In retrospect, this was probably the best time to trade Miller, but only for those same issues that would lead to his eventual departure anyway, which were largely unknown at the time. The performance-based argument for dealing Miller, made loudly by this author and others, was simply wrong.

In any case, incoming GM Patrik Allvin made the call to extend Miller, signing him to a seven-year, $8 million AAV contract a few weeks ahead of Training Camp 2022.

For the 2022-23 season, it looked as though the naysayers might finally have it right on Miller. His production took a step back to 82 points in 81 games, and some of the defensive lapses he used to be famous for began to crop up again with more frequency.

But the best was yet to come.

Miller hit 30 during the 2023-24 season. He also hit his peak with 37 goals, 66 assists, and 103 points in 81 games. That’s new career highs across the board again, except for assists. That’s also the seventh-most productive season in Vancouver Canucks history.

Miller followed that up with a run of 12 points in 13 playoff games through two rounds. And then it all sort of fell apart.

We’re still too close to the fallout of the 2024-25 to provide a proper post-mortem. Suffice it to say that everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. The team got off to a dreadful start, and the centrepiece of the story became a reported feud between Miller and Pettersson that very soon got out of hand. At around the same time, there appeared to be some serious tension between Miller and head coach Ri ck Tocchet. Whatever the reality behind the scenes, something occurred that was serious enough to send Miller off on a 10-game hiatus for ‘personal reasons.’ By the time he returned, the writing was very much on the wall, and it said ‘Miller back to New York.’

The trade that everyone knew was coming was completed on January 31, 2025, and sent Miller to the Rangers (along with Erik Brännström and Jackson Dorrington) in exchange for Filip Chytil, Victor Mancini, and a conditional first-round pick that was promptly flipped to Pittsburgh.

Miller’s six-year run with the Canucks had come to an end. At that point in the season, he had 35 points in 40 games for the Canucks, leaving him with a regular season total of 404 games, 152 goals, 285 assists, and 437 points.

Those 437 points have Miller just missing out on the top-10 all-time in Canucks scoring at 11^th place – 12 points behind Todd Bertuzzi, who played 114 more games in Vancouver. Perhaps more impressively, it’s only 41 points behind Pavel Bure in 24 fewer games.

In fact, Miller’s 1.082 point-per-game average with the Canucks sits second all-time, trailing just Bure and his 1.117. Between them, they’re the only two Canucks with career PPGs above 1.00.

And if we’re talking postseason, Miller’s 30 career points may sit only 15^th all-time, but his 1.0 0 playoff PPG is also tied for second all-time, behind Bure and equal to Thomas Gradin.

Add it all up and, controversy or not, it’s quite a legacy to leave behind.

Speaking of which, we’ll end by noting that Miller is far from the first great Canuck to leave the franchise on less-than-ideal terms. That includes several names who will feature higher on this list, like Bure, Ryan Kesler, and Roberto Luongo.

All of those controversies have faded over time, and those players have been welcomed back with mostly open arms, recognized for the quality of their play, not the circumstances of their leaving.

Will the same eventually happen for JT Miller?

The quality of his play, at the very least, certainly spoke for itself.

Our previously ranked top 50 Canucks of all time:

#50 – Curt Fraser
#49 – Dave Babych
#48 – Martin Gelinas
#47 – Chris Oddleifson
#46 – Jannik Hansen
#45 – Ivan Boldirev
#44 – Gary Smith
#43 – Jacob Markstrom
#42 – Orland Kurtenbach
#41 – Harold Snepsts
#40 – Darcy Rota
#39 – Thatcher Demko
#38 – Geoff Courtnall
#37 – Dennis Ververgaert
#36 – Petri Skriko
#35 – Dan Hamhuis
#34 – Doug Lidster
#33 – Patrik Sundstrom
#32 – Brendan Morrison
#31 – Richard Brodeur
#30 – Sami Salo
#29 – André Boudrais
#28 – Kevin Bieksa
#27 – Don Lever
#26 – Bo Horvat
#25 – Brock Boeser
#24 – Dennis Kearns
#23 – Ed Jovanovski
#22 – Greg Adams
#21 – Cliff Ronning