Miller’s wife was partying with other Vancouver Canucks WAGs in Whistler when J.T. got traded
NHL trades affect far more than just the players involved; they also shake up the lives of their family members.
When the Vancouver Canucks traded J.T. Miller in January, it was the third time across his career he’d been moved. That doesn’t make it any easier, as he and his family had to uproot and move from Vancouver to New York.
For his wife Natalie, the most recent trade came at a less-than-ideal time. She was on a trip with other Canucks wives and girlfriends.
“We were actually on the Canucks wives Whistler trip that me and a couple of girls had planned,” explained Natalie on the Never Offside podcast with Cat Toffoli and Julie Petry.
While Natalie knew for weeks leading up to the moment a trade could be coming, when the trip rolled around, she decided to go as J.T. was still on the team.
“We were at this place called Longhorns celebrating, champagne guns, the game was about to start, and I saw my phone ring, and I was like, ‘oh no, it’s like 10 minutes before the game starts, this is it.’ I turned my phone towards the girls, and you could see everybody’s face [drop]. So I stepped out, he said, ‘I just got traded,’ talked to his agent, came back in and had a few cocktails, to say the least.”
While having your team’s wives’ and girlfriends’ trip interrupted by trade is tough, it’s a much better situation than Natalie was in during J.T.’s two previous trades. There was also the benefit that J.T.’s Canucks trade came after months of rumours.
“The first time J.T. was traded, I was eight months pregnant, and the second time, I was six weeks post-partum with a one-year-old, and we had no heads up for those, so it was very overwhelming. You’re dealing with all the hormones, whatever. This one we had a little bit of a heads-up for, so I felt like I could prepare a little bit. When it actually did come, I was still so shocked.”
The Canucks also traded away Danton Heinen, Vincent Desharnais, and Melvin Fernstrom, along with a draft pick, to the Pittsburgh Penguins later in the night. Heinen’s partner was also on the Whistler trip and made plans to stay at Natalie and J.T.’s Pittsburgh house after the trade.
“One of the other girls’ significant others also got traded. She wasn’t expecting it; I felt so bad for her, so I immediately just problem-solved it. I was like,’ You can live in our house in Pittsburgh, it’s fine, you can just live in our house.’ She texted me in the morning like, ‘I know we were really drunk last night, but can I actually do that?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s no problem.'”
Since being traded to the Rangers, Miller has scored nine points in nine games and has been one of the best players on his new team.