Price is Right: Can Canucks move Miller before no-trade clause kicks in?
Needless to say perhaps, but the Bo Horvat watch is not only front burner for Vancouver Canucks coverage these days, but it may have all four burners busy — even that annoyingly small one at the back that is basically just for simmering.
But over the next few weeks perhaps there’s a chance for the story to change.
The Canucks are playing a bit better these days, and they certainly aren’t slowing down on offence. And those two factors could lead to a nice resurgence in production for J.T. Miller, which in turn, could get more teams interested in taking on that still unused contract of seven years, $8 million. Which for an over a point-per-game player, may be considered a fair one.
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And this is not to say he hasn’t been productive to this point. He’s very nearly a point per game anyway. He even had points in 16 of 17 games for a while there in the middle part of the schedule.
But if Miller can get back to an over a point-per-game pace, and make his defensive miscues a mere cost of doing good business, well then maybe there’s chance that he can more certainly be included on the Canucks sale menu. Now, I don’t think anyone is thinking that all of these top end players are on their way out of Vancouver. But the more that are of interest, the better, as it increases the likelihood of cap space being created or new younger assets being brought in.
It’s clear the Canucks are leaning into the idea of outscoring their problems, particularly with Thatcher Demko out. Heck, maybe that doesn’t even matter. But with offence, comes Miller. With Miller, comes offence. And once he gets on another hot streak, he just might be too tempting for a team looking for an offensive driver.
The roster freeze is coming soon, so the trades will likely have to wait. But in the meantime, there’s still time to fatten the holiday hams.