New Information Comes to Light About What Really Happened Between J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson
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Vancouver Canucks President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford has opened up about the feud this season between forwards Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller.
It was a tough for the Vancouver Canucks as they missed out on the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the fourth time in the last five seasons and along with that the team had to deal with a a reported feud between Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller, the latter of whom was traded to the New York Rangers in January.
Jim Rutherford, the team's President of Hockey Operations, shared shared some behind the scenes details leading up to Miller's trade and this week, he opened up further regarding that feud between their former forward and Elias Pettersson.
Jim Rutherford opens up on feud between Elias Pettersson & J.T. Miller
In a sit-down interview with Stephen Brunt, Jim Rutherford opened up about how difficult it was to deal with the rift in the locker room between the two players.
Rutherford shared that in his 40-year career as an executive in the National Hockey League, nothing has compared to how difficult this season was with the Vancouver Canucks.
He also went on to reveal that while something had been going on between Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller prior to the 2024-25 campaign, it went off the rails in the first week of the season and eventually, they knew it was time to make a trade.
"No." Rutherford said when asked if he's ever dealt with something more difficult in his career as an executive. "The challenge in Carolina with moving an NHL franchise in a five-month period to a place that wasn't expecting us was a major, major challenge. It wasn't the challenge we had here."
He added, "You can talk many different ways about the whole thing. I don't point the finger at Miller, I don't point the finger at Pettersson. There was a lot of things going on there around that that affected other people. The fact of the matter is, we won out division the year before, with those two players and we knew there were issues, but there was no reason to make a change when you can win your division, when the coach and the General Manager and everybody figures out a way to keep it on the rails.
But then, for whatever reason, the very first week of this past season, it went way off the rails and everybody worked hard on it and it got to the point where we all knew that something had to change."
He added, "You can talk many different ways about the whole thing. I don't point the finger at Miller, I don't point the finger at Pettersson. There was a lot of things going on there around that that affected other people. The fact of the matter is, we won out division the year before, with those two players and we knew there were issues, but there was no reason to make a change when you can win your division, when the coach and the General Manager and everybody figures out a way to keep it on the rails.
But then, for whatever reason, the very first week of this past season, it went way off the rails and everybody worked hard on it and it got to the point where we all knew that something had to change."
Ultimately, the Vancouver Canucks' management group traded J.T. Miller, who approached them about a move, to the New York Rangers for a package that included a first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, rookie defenseman Victor Mancini and former first-rounder Filip Chytil.
The more these stories come out regarding the feud, it seems like it reached a boiling point between the two players and in order to save the dressing room from completely falling apart, a trade needed to be made before the deadline in early March.
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