When you take the lengthy view, all the best way again to February of 2022, then J.T. Miller to the New York Rangers seems inevitable.
In Rangers normal supervisor Chris Drury’s first season on the job, the participant he most coveted was Miller, then a 28-year-old Vancouver Canucks heart with a 12 months left on his deal within the midst of a breakout offensive season.
Three seasons and lots of, many iterations of a deal later, Drury obtained his man.
Miller is older, extra established as a top-line producer and maybe a bit extra poisonous, given the state of relations between him and fellow Canucks elite participant Elias Pettersson this season. However the Rangers nonetheless wished Miller to turn out to be the centerpiece of their on-the-fly transformation right into a staff that’s obtained extra sandpaper, contained in the dressing room and on the ice.
In discussions with quite a few sources with the Canucks, Rangers and across the league, it turned clear by the point the deal went down Friday evening that 1) Miller needed to go away Vancouver, 2) his most well-liked vacation spot was to return to the Rangers, the staff that drafted him fifteenth in 2011, and three) the Rangers have been decided to not fully disrupt the present roster or their valued future belongings to make the deal occur.
Flashing again to the 2021-22 season: Drury, armed with a load of draft capital and ample cap area, was seeking to plug some holes in a Rangers staff that was succeeding fairly properly after 4 seasons spent in rebuild mode. He’d seen Miller up shut as assistant GM for two-plus years earlier than the Rangers despatched Miller to the Lightning as a part of the primary huge transfer after The Letter, the missive despatched out to season-ticket holders forward of the 2017-18 commerce deadline detailing the necessity to rebuild the staff’s prospect pool after years of going for broke.
Canucks president/GM Jim Rutherford had a goal in thoughts for a return: Braden Schneider, then a 20-year-old rookie displaying poise and steadiness after a midseason call-up. Drury’s principal objective, then as now, was to carry onto the youngsters near or already within the NHL and use extra futures, significantly the stockpile of draft picks the Rangers had then, to make his deadline strikes.
Neither facet budged then. Drury appeared elsewhere, surrendering the Rangers’ 2022 first for Andrew Copp whereas solely giving up mid-round picks for different additions. And the Canucks determined forward of the 2022-23 coaching camp to decide to Miller, signing him to a seven-year deal value $8 million per 12 months in early September.
That put the longer term Miller-Rangers marriage on ice for at the least a few seasons. The Rangers went to a different Jap Convention ultimate and once more fell quick, as they did in 2022. The Canucks had a mediocre 2022-23 and a wondrous 2023-24. It appeared like no matter strikes the Rangers have been going to make this season, Miller wasn’t going to be a part of them.
However there was turmoil at each ends of the continent earlier than the puck even dropped on the 2024-25 season, and that obtained issues transferring once more.

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Regardless of going up 2-1 within the Jap Convention ultimate towards the Florida Panthers and falling simply quick, Drury tried to be proactive in remaking the Rangers roster barely just a few weeks after his staff was eradicated. He referred to as Barclay Goodrow, one among Drury’s first acquisitions as GM and one of many handful of Rangers to put on a letter, quarter-hour earlier than the June 18 day by day waiver record got here out to tell the veteran he was being waived.
What Goodrow didn’t know is that the Sharks, whose GM Mike Grier had been an adviser to Drury previous to getting the San Jose gig, have been able to scoop Goodrow and the remaining three years of his contract off the waiver wire. That appeared like a strong-arm tactic to some within the Rangers room — and a few exterior the room — however Drury wasn’t carried out.
He approached captain Jacob Trouba forward of July 1 to ask for Trouba’s 15-team no-trade record within the hopes of creating a deal to shed Trouba’s $8 million cap hit earlier than free company started. Trouba, who held a full no-move as much as July 1, declined to play alongside, submitting his record on July 1 as outlined within the league’s collective bargaining settlement.
That struck one other chord inside what had been a fairly low-maintenance Rangers room. The season started in first rate vogue at 12-4-1, however there have been main points beneath the floor.
In the meantime, the Canucks have been additionally placing out fires. The Miller-Pettersson discord simmered by the early a part of the season and Miller took a sudden go away of absence for private causes on Nov. 19 — coincidentally the day the Rangers have been in Vancouver.
By the point he returned on Dec. 12, the Canucks have been sporting an honest 14-8-5 report however the points remained. As a lot as Miller, Pettersson and the Canucks tried to deflect, there was no getting round the truth that Rutherford, GM Patrik Allvin and coach Rick Tocchet knew that one among their star gamers needed to go.
And the Rangers hadn’t simply hit a velocity bump throughout that stretch; their trip had been totaled. Drury’s staff was within the midst of a 4-15-0 freefall, punctuated by the GM sending out a textual content to the league’s 31 different GMs on Nov. 24 that the Rangers have been seeking to make some strikes. He named two gamers in that textual content: Trouba and Chris Kreider, the staff’s longest-tenured participant.
Throughout Miller’s go away of absence, Drury related once more with Rutherford and Allvin to make a suggestion: Mika Zibanejad for Miller. The Canucks didn’t know what to make of that, on condition that each gamers talked about had full no-move clauses and Miller was on go away. That will not have been a severe commerce dialogue, however it obtained the ball rolling once more on talks between the 2 groups — talks that accelerated as soon as Miller returned.

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Schneider was nonetheless off the desk, however one other intriguing piece had emerged for the Canucks in Filip Chytil, who missed all however 10 video games final season with a concussion. Chytil, within the second 12 months of a four-year deal, had begun this season with no points however has missed 9 video games over a few totally different absences, neither of which have been straight attributable to concussions.
The Canucks have been nonetheless in search of a defenseman in a deal. Ryan Lindgren, a pending unrestricted free agent who has struggled like many Rangers this season, was in an earlier model of a swap that was rejected. The Rangers refused to incorporate Drew Fortescue, their third-round decide in 2023 who’s at present taking part in top-pair minutes for Boston School, the No. 1 staff in NCAA hockey.
There have been different latest Miller offers that fell by for numerous causes. Miller was near being scratched forward of a potential Rangers transfer on Jan. 18 however that deal was nixed over safety across the Rangers’ 2025 first-round decide. There might have been some dispute over potential wage retention by the Canucks, which was a no-go all alongside.
Victor Mancini emerged from Rangers growth camp forward of coaching camp proper on as much as opening evening, when the 22-year-old made the membership with Lindgren sidelined by harm. The Rangers noticed Mancini as a future third-pair, stay-at-home sort; the Canucks might even see him as extra of a 4/5 who can play shutdown minutes.
There was, regardless of all of the stops and begins, some urgency to closing this deal for the Rangers. Miller had let or not it’s identified for months that he was keen to waive his no-move clause to return to New York however the more and more untenable state of affairs in Vancouver opened up extra prospects for Miller.
The Penguins, in Miller’s hometown, made a short inquiry earlier within the season however aren’t in place to make this sort of transfer. Miller doubtless would have gone to the Blue Jackets or Hurricanes, who additionally went deep on a potential transfer earlier than making their deal for Mikko Rantanen every week in the past.
So the Rangers didn’t have limitless time despite the fact that they doubtless knew Miller most wished to go there above anyplace else.
And the Rangers, who shipped Trouba to the Geese on Dec. 6 and Kaapo Kakko to the Kraken on Dec. 18, might not but be completed. Miller and Vincent Trocheck, offseason exercise buddies in Pittsburgh, are the highest two facilities and are on the coronary heart of the remade management group. Zibanejad and Kreider could also be reunited on the third line, with lowered minutes and roles; Drury might revisit transferring one or each of them in the summertime regardless of Zibanejad’s no-move clause.
Drury obtained his man. The Canucks removed a serious headache. The truth proper now could be each groups sit exterior the playoffs. However, three years after it was first mentioned, they’ve remade their rosters in an enormous method.

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(Photograph: Elsa / Getty Photographs)