It wasn’t quite on the scale of Luka Doncic to the Lakers, but the trades the Vancouver Canucks executed with the New York Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday evening were a whopper.
The deal featured a 100-point center relocating to one of the league’s signature franchises. The team captained by Sidney Crosby sold five weeks out from the trade deadline. Vancouver has also extricated itself from one of the most public locker room spats in recent NHL history.
Unpacking these two separate trades, which included 10 players and a fascinating, volatile future asset, is relatively complex. There are a variety of angles to consider for the three teams involved.
Let’s get into it piece by piece by assigning some winners and losers from the big Friday night blockbusters between Vancouver and New York and Vancouver and Pittsburgh.
Winners
Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’Connor’s representatives
It’s essential for Canucks management to find a way to re-sign both Pettersson and O’Connor (Pettersson especially) given the steep acquisition cost Vancouver paid — including the Rangers’ top-13 protected 2025 first-round pick, which could flip to an unprotected 2026 first, and prospect Melvin Fernström, a 2024 third-round pick.
Vancouver isn’t even in a playoff spot right now, so it’d be an unmitigated disaster if the club surrendered the most valuable asset from the Miller trade for two rental players who walk for nothing in the summer. Sure, the Canucks also got cap relief by shedding Danton Heinen and Vincent Desharnais’ modest contracts in the deal, but management won’t get much credit in the Vancouver market for that because they were the ones who signed those contracts this past offseason.
On Saturday, Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin told reporters that signing Pettersson to a contract extension is a “priority.” Expect extension talks to begin shortly with both of Vancouver’s newly acquired former Penguins.
Pettersson and O’Connor’s agents will have significant leverage when the club opens those talks. Especially in Pettersson’s case, Vancouver is pot-committed and will have a difficult time walking away from the table given the stakes of this deal.
The Canucks’ blue line, besides the Quinn Hughes-led top pair, has arguably been the biggest weakness on the roster; they need to address this need long-term. This doesn’t necessarily mean the club will be forced to overpay significantly, but as we often see in these types of situations, the timing of the acquisition does give the respective players’ camps leverage and an early upper hand in contract talks.
Kyle Dubas
The exchange value of the Rangers’ protected 2025 first-round pick is the most fascinating aspect from both of Friday night’s trades.
The Rangers (and Canucks) are betting that adding a player of Miller’s caliber to their lineup will make them a playoff team either this season or next, and they’re probably right. The fat part of the bell curve outcome is that the Rangers will never surrender a lottery pick, much less a top-five pick (or better), as a result of the price they paid to acquire Miller on Friday night.
Because of the protection structure on that pick, however, and the possibility that it could become an unprotected 2026 first, there’s a compelling case to be made that the highest upside asset in either deal was acquired by Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas.
The Rangers have played poorly this season and are 13th in the Eastern Conference by point percentage and six points back of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, with the Lightning also holding the tie-breaker edge. Nearly all of New York’s top forwards are on the other side of 30, including Miller.
New York’s lineup is star-studded and gifted, but the Rangers wouldn’t be the first group to get old in a hurry in recent NHL history. That risk is mitigated somewhat by the greatness of Ilya Sheshterkin, but it’s still substantive, especially in an Eastern Conference that’s loaded with ascendant, younger teams like the Columbus Blue Jackets, Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens.
If the Penguins and Dubas are going to find a way to graft enough juice into their lineup quickly enough for it to matter for their older Hall of Fame-bound players, it’s clear that they’re going to need a few long-shot bets to hit. Dubas appeared to place a sharp-looking upside bet on Friday night, acquiring a good asset with an outside chance of becoming a franchise-altering one.
Pettersson is now Vancouver’s unquestioned No. 1 center. (Danny Murphy / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Elias Pettersson
Miller was always more likely to be traded than Pettersson, but until a move happened, the latter could have just as easily been dealt. In fact, the Canucks were reportedly close to dealing Pettersson to Carolina before the Mikko Rantanen trade.
The trade chatter around Pettersson will quiet down now that Miller’s gone. That should provide invaluable certainty and peace of mind, especially because Pettersson had zero trade protection and could have been sent to a team like Buffalo, which was rumored to be one of the front-runners for his services. He also no longer has to deal with a teammate he had a public rift with.
Pettersson will also be trusted with many of the extra on-ice responsibilities that Miller had as Vancouver’s true No. 1 center; an opportunity the former has craved for years. He’ll now get the head-to-head matchups against the Connor McDavids and Nathan MacKinnons of the NHL. A higher percentage of his shifts will occur with Hughes on the ice now. He’ll get first dibs on the Canucks’ best wingers as potential linemates. Those are notable changes compared to the last couple of seasons, where he was clearly the No. 2 center on the pecking order behind Miller.
J.T. Miller
This has been a difficult season for Miller both on and off the ice.
The 31-year-old’s all-around game took a significant step back after his career-best numbers in 2023-24. He appears to have been playing through injuries at various points this season. In November, he took a 10-game personal leave of absence. Miller’s rift with Pettersson went public.
Watching Miller’s wavering engagement on the ice and the standoffish vibe around him in the locker room, it’s been clear for a while that he needed a fresh start. Miller got a relatively quick resolution — the Canucks could have looked at the tepid trade market for Miller and decided to wait until the summer to move him — and he got to go to an attractive New York market that he’s already familiar and comfortable with.
Miller’s first game back with the Rangers, a two-goal performance, was the most engaged, hungry and emotionally invested he’s looked all season. He told reporters there are “a thousand reasons” for him to want to be in New York. This is the perfect change of scenery for him.
Vincent Trocheck
There’s no more relatable way to be a “winner” in an NHL transaction than when your team goes out and acquires your absolute bestie.
Vincent Trocheck and Miller grew up together in Pittsburgh, still train together in the offseasons and understandably seem to be thrilled to have an opportunity to play together at the NHL level for the first time in their careers.
Since the trade, Trocheck has busily been posting heartwarming childhood photos of himself and Miller playing hockey together, or spending time with one another’s families.
Vincent Trocheck’s IG story is currently a picture of J.T. Miller hugging Trocheck’s daughter 😭 pic.twitter.com/FDUkTUFCPd
— Evan Sporer (@ev_sporer) February 1, 2025
Trocheck was even consulted by his general manager as a character reference, of sorts, for Miller prior to the trade. He described his newest teammate as “My best friend in the world,” following the Rangers’ loss to the Bruins on Saturday.
“It’s just a cool experience to be able to play with your best friend in the NHL,” Trocheck added.
Filip Chytil
Chytil has teased second-line caliber potential during a couple of stretches of his NHL career. The speedy shot-first center hasn’t been able to reach that potential because of injuries and mostly being used in a third-line role while stuck behind Trocheck and Mika Zibanejad, but there could be some untapped upside left in his game.
Coming to Vancouver, Chytil immediately becomes the de facto No. 2 centre behind Pettersson. He’ll have the luxury of a long top-six leash, which he didn’t get in New York, as he averaged 14:20 per game this season.
Let’s see if Chytil can capitalize on this bigger opportunity.
Losers
Elias Pettersson
No, this wasn’t a typo: Pettersson is both a winner and a loser in the fallout of these moves. There are major advantages for him in the aftermath of the Miller trade, but there’s also an enormous downside risk.
For better or for worse, Pettersson is always going to be tied to Miller’s departure. There are a lot of Canucks fans who were “Team Miller” and will be upset that he had to go in favor of Pettersson. The pressure was already high on Vancouver’s star Swede because of his lacklustre performance since signing an eight-year, $11.6 million AAV contract extension. Now that Miller’s gone, it’s through the roof.
The Canucks’ forward group is overwhelmingly reliant on whether Pettersson can bounce back as a 90-to-100-point franchise player. If he doesn’t reach that level, the majority of Canucks fans will turn on him. It could get really ugly, really fast if he doesn’t step up.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that Pettersson’s legacy as a Canuck is on the line following this Miller trade. If Pettersson doesn’t play up to his ceiling, Vancouver’s front office could decide to trade him in the summer before his July 1 no-movement clause kicks in.
Sidney Crosby’s odds of playing playoff hockey
The Penguins did well to net as much upside as they did in trading O’Connor and Pettersson on Friday night.
The fact remains, however, that the Penguins are materially thinner on the back end and worse on paper today than they were on Friday afternoon. And that dents Pittsburgh’s already thin hopes of earning a Stanley Cup playoff berth.
Although the club is just six points out of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, the Penguins are 15th in the East by point percentage, ahead of only the Buffalo Sabres. Their playoff hopes were already pretty slim.
Still over the last week, and more as a result of this deal than because of their results, Pittsburgh’s odds of playing playoff games for the first time since 2022 have been cut in half.
Canucks management
While Allvin and Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford can be fairly said to have made the most out of an unworkable, dysfunctional situation this weekend, the fact remains that their club felt the need to jettison two short-term contracts that they signed this past summer, and an additional core piece that the club committed to long-term just two and a half years ago.
Even beyond quibbling with the value of the specific trades, or noting that the franchise has now fundamentally altered its trajectory, that the problem personalities and contracts that the club needed to shed were all signed so recently is a tough look for Canucks hockey operations.
Brock Boeser’s Canucks future
It was striking to hear how differently Allvin discussed Marcus Pettersson’s future compared to Boeser’s. Both are unrestricted free agents.
Allvin, without having seen one game of how Pettersson fits with the Canucks, was already telling reporters that it’s a “priority” to extend the lanky 28-year-old defenseman. That’s an understandable and reasonable stance for Vancouver’s GM to take given the club’s top-four needs and the organization’s familiarity with Pettersson (Rutherford traded for him in Pittsburgh in 2018).
But it’s interesting to hear how motivated and eager the club is to commit to Pettersson compared to the lukewarm rhetoric around Boeser, who’s been a huge part of the club’s core.
On Saturday, when asked about Boeser’s contract situation, Allvin said they were “still evaluating” the player. This is the same public stance they’ve taken on him for months. Boeser has already played over 500 games for the Canucks; what more is there to evaluate about him?
Boeser has had the most success of his Canucks tenure when riding shotgun with Miller. Miller’s playmaking ability down low was an excellent fit with Boeser’s finishing ability from the inner slot. With Miller gone, the risk and uncertainty around committing a six- or seven-year contract to Boeser increases.
Boeser’s days in Vancouver could be numbered unless he’s willing to take a team-friendly deal.
Danton Heinen
Hailing from Abbotsford, B.C., Danton Heinen got the opportunity to come home this season and play for the team he grew up rooting for. The experience, as it turned out, was short-lived and bittersweet.
Heinen never really found his groove in his hometown. After opening the season in the top six, he quickly fell down the depth chart.
Now his Canucks tenure is abruptly over. The versatile, penalty killing ace winger was dealt as a cap dump within seven months of signing a two-year, $2.25 million cap hit contract as an unrestricted free agent.
Contender GMs with blue-line needs
The market for blue-line upgrades has been frozen, somewhat, throughout this season.
Sure, we’ve seen a few swaps involving defenders over the course of this season — Alexandre Carrier, Jacob Trouba, Timothy Liljegren, David Jiricek — but Marcus Pettersson is really the first credible, top-four defender on an expiring contract to move this year.
That market is now set as a result of the Pettersson trade, and the price has been set high. The Penguins didn’t just get a first-round pick in a deal in which Pettersson was the principal piece, they were able to collect a first-round pick with upside.
There are nearly a dozen playoff hopefuls that could use some additional help on the blue line between now and the March 7 trade deadline. And you can bet that every seller is going to be looking greedily at the Marcus Pettersson return as a template on which to base their asks.
(Photo of J.T. Miller talking with Braden Schneider and Urho Vaakanainen: Brian Fluharty / Getty Images)
