Canucks Friday Night
Oh the humanity.
We know J.T. Miller was happy to get out. His body language after the 3-1 win against the Nashville Predators on Wednesday night was anything but enthusiastic. The team’s social media video of the players smiling and walking into the dressing room fist bumping assistant coaches and support staff showed Miller about eighth in line and not really participating. His lame or lack of high-fives suggested “yeah, whatever.”
He got his wish.
The Canucks sent Miller, surprisingly effective 25-year-old, left-shot defenceman Erik Brannstrom, and the rights to lefty D-man Jackson Dorrington, a Vancouver 2022 6th-round NHL Draft pick presently playing at Northeastern University in Boston, to the New York Rangers, the team that originally drafted and signed Miller in 2011.
In return the Canucks received 25-year-old lefty centre Filip Chytil, the 21st-overall pick of the Blueshirts in the 2017 draft, righty blueline prospect Victor Mancini, mostly playing in the American Hockey League these days, and a conditional 2025 1st-round draft pick.
Mancini, New York’s 5th-round pick in 2022, is a big boy, 6-foot-3, 229-pounds.
The Canucks needed to restore some size in their D-depth because later on Friday they announced that big blueliner Vincent Desharnais, signed this past summer as a free agent, winger Danton Heinen, who played in Vancouver’s 5-3 loss to the Dallas Stars, and 2024 3rd-round draftee Melvin Fernström, an 18-year-old right winger playing in his native Sweden, all were dealt to the Pittsburgh Penguins for defenceman Marcus Pettersson and forward Drew O’Connor.
The Canucks also flipped the Penguins the conditional 1st-round pick they acquired earlier from the Rangers.
The key for Vancouver in that move was getting Pettersson, a tall, lanky regular on the left side.
The Miller / Elias Pettersson saga, whatever that was, is over.
