Weeks-long soap opera ends as Canucks trade JT Miller to Rangers

JT Miller is going back to where it all began.

The veteran forward was finally traded out of Vancouver late this afternoon and is heading back to the team that drafted him 15th overall in 2011 – the New York Rangers.

The Vancouver Canucks sent the 31-year-old Miller, Erik Brannstrom and the rights to prospect Jackson Dorrington to the Big Apple in exchange for Filip Chytil, Victor Mancini and a first-round pick in 2025.

It’s a top-13 protected draft pick, which means it will become an unprotected 2026 first-round pick if the Rangers end up receiving picks one through 13 in this summer’s draft.

Full trade details:

To #NYR: J.T. Miller, Erik Brannstrom, Jackson Dorrington

To #Canucks: Filip Chytil, Victor Mancini, 2025 1st Round Pick (Top 13 Protected)

No salary retained on Miller. If #NYR pick is in Top 13, pick transfers to 2026.

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) February 1, 2025

The trade ends weeks of drama in the Vancouver market around star forwards JT Miller and Elias Pettersson.

While both have produced 100-point seasons in the past three years, talk of a years-long rift between the two began to surface early this season and continued to pick up steam.

Team president Jim Rutherford essentially confirmed the rift recently and seemingly threw fuel on the fire through an interview with Gary Mason of the Globe & Mail earlier this week.

Miller, who often looked sad and disengaged on the ice of late, will hope to rediscover his spark on a Rangers team that is desperate to get back into the playoff race after a slow start to the season.

Meanwhile, the Canucks get back a middle-six centre in Chytil, 25, who was a first-round pick himself in 2017, but has dealt with concussion issues over the past two seasons.

Mancini, 22, is an intriguing prospect for Vancouver as well, as the 6’3” right-hand-shot defenseman could find his way onto a weak Canucks defence core sooner than later.

Vancouver now has two first-round picks this summer, but there’s a good chance it won’t stay that way for long.

Rutherford has discussed keeping the Canucks competitive in order to ensure superstar and captain Quinn Hughes wants to stay in town for the duration of his career.

That means there’s a good chance Rutherford and GM Patrick Allvin will be looking to utilize one of the club’s first-round picks to bolster the roster ahead of the NHL’s March trade deadline.