Maybe it’s time for hockey fans to start clearing their Friday night schedules. Last Friday, Mikko Rantanen changed hands in a trade that sent shockwaves through the NHL.

This week, in an admittedly less surprising deal, another star player switched teams when the New York Rangers made their move for Vancouver Canucks center J.T. Miller.

The ‘Nucks knew they had to trade Miller once his rift with fellow centerman Elias Pettersson leaked to the media earlier this season. The feud never left the headlines, and the organization failed to dispel rumors that their two best forwards could not coexist.

If the Canucks tried their hand at addition by subtraction, the Rangers are attempting to save their season with addition by addition. An earlier blue line revamp did nothing to shake up an aging, underperforming group of star forwards. Drury is betting that Miller’s fire and talent will unlock something in Kreider, Zibanejad, and Co. before it’s too late.

Two of last season’s elite teams made gutsy calls on a player who finished in the top 15 of Hart and Selke voting last season, a decision that necessitates the latest edition of Daily Faceoff’s trade grades. 

New York Rangers

Receive:

C J.T. Miller, $8 million cap hit through 2030
D Erik Brannstrom, $900,000 cap hit through 2025
D Jackson Dorrington, Northeastern University

The debate surrounding Miller’s return to the team that drafted him won’t be about his merits as a player. It will surround the decision to add a fifth 31+, trade-protected forward to a core that may have already missed its best chance. 

Still, neither the mean age of the Rangers nor Miller’s ugly breakup with Canucks should overshadow just how good a player he still is. Last season was the best of his career (37 G, 102 P), and there were times during a slam-bang second-round matchup with the Edmonton Oilers when his tenacity was just too much for Connor McDavid.

That’s who Miller is when he’s switched on, when he’s not moping or yelling or whatever else he did to wear out his welcome in BC. His physicality and determination can win him minutes against just about anyone, and that is especially valuable for a Rangers team that struggled to control possession even as they waltzed to the Presidents’ Trophy last season. 

Then there’s the scoring; he averaged 1.08 points per game during his Canucks career, the second-best mark in team history behind Pavel Bure.

Miller will give Peter Laviolette a ton of options to reinvigorate his lineup, none more enticing than filling in as a bigger, better version of future Team USA teammate Vincent Trocheck between Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere on the top unit.

The term on Miller’s contract is rough, but it was only a month-and-a-half ago that the Blue Shirts parted company with a far worse $8-million man, and perhaps that number will be more manageable in the brave new world of the rising cap.

I’m not here to grade the Rangers’ organizational strategy, which is approaching New York Islander-level stubbornness. They landed an excellent player who fills several needs without giving up Braden Schneider. That’s a win, even if this is all probably going to hurt in the morning.

Grade: B+

Vancouver Canucks

Receive:

C Filip Chytil, $4.437 million cap hit through 2027
D Victor Mancini, $870,000 cap hit through 2026
Top-13 protected 2025 first-round pick

If it seemed that these talented Canucks had finally learned to play as a team after claiming the Pacific Division crown in 2023-24, the cold war between Pettersson and Miller ended that notion by Christmas, and the team’s results have been in the toilet ever since (6-8-3).

Parting with the older, more attainable player was the simplest way to hit the reset button on a season derailed by off-ice drama. Filip Chytil, a solid middle-sixer with potential, will draw into their lineup as Miller’s replacement in the lineup.

Chytil’s speed and smarts were apparent for stretches in New York, but persistent head injuries and the presence of Vincent Trocheck and Mika Zibanejad limited opportunities between the team’s best wingers. By throwing him in the deep end in a top-six role, the Canucks will make their bet Chytil can consistently replicate the form that made him so interesting in 2022-23 (22 G, 45 P in 74 GP).

Mancini, a big, stay-at-home D-man with sneaky mobility, is more than a mere throw-in. The 22-year-old forced his way into the Rangers’ early-season plans after a strong camp and found decent chemistry with Zac Jones before New York sent him back to AHL Hartford. He’s shown some upside, which is more than Noah Juulsen or now-Penguin Vincent Desharnais, both of whom struggled mightily as the Canucks’ third righty, can say.

A separate deal for Marcus Pettersson doesn’t factor into Vancouver’s grade here. They got a middle-of-the-lineup player in Chytil, a potential NHLer in Mancini, and a useful pick for a locker room headache whose full no-movement clause limited their options. That’s not nothing, not when Miller was a distressed asset and everyone knew it. 

Could Vancouver have gotten more if its management stopped confirming their team chemistry was a disaster? Jim Rutherford and Patrick Allvin deserve some credit for finally cutting bait, but it should never have gotten this ugly.

Grade: C

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