Price is Right: How likely is Miller to provide high value for Canucks into his mid-30s?

It’s hard to be an elite player in the NHL.

This is a fast and hard league. So as the Canucks welcome 29-year-old J.T. Miller back, with a new extension in tow, the question remains as to how many of the next eight years will resemble the last three.

The Canucks will get some cap help over those years via expiring contracts and an increase in the upper cap limit, but still, you want some return for $8 million a season.

For starters, it should be stated that not many players enjoy success into their mid-30s. Among forwards who are currently 35 years-old or older, only seven were able to collect more than 45 points last season. 45 points is not a huge bar to clear, and only seven guys at 35 were able to get there. That’s not a lot of players.

It’s a rare achievement.

And of those players, we’re talking mostly about guys that either are, or will likely be 1,000-point players in their careers. Hall of Famers, really.

Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Anze Kopitar, and Patrice Bergeron make up four of the seven spots.

The other three names are Joe Pavelski, Mats Zuccarello, and Blake Wheeler — and those are interesting comparisons to make. Pavelski’s scoring rate is not that far off of Miller. And he was amazingly still a point-per-game last season at 37.

Wheeler is a bigger dude, and that can often hurt guys later in their careers. They often get slow and lumbering. But despite some injury issues, Wheeler has remained effectively a point-per-game too.

Zuccarello is a late bloomer, maybe even more so than Miller, and had 79 points in 70 games last season, a career high for him.

These three players are proof that it’s absolutely possible for Miller to keep it up deep into this contract. But man, is it rare.

There are only 21 forwards who are 35 or older even in the league. And of that, just the three non Hall of Famers that were able to remain elite. Only time will tell if Miller can beat the odds and still be a major part of the Canucks attack near the end of the contract.